With great joy, we celebrate the decision to reopen the borders of our country to foreign tourists from neighboring countries as of October 1st. After a year and a half in which we were separated by the COVID-19 situation, this decision does not go unnoticed while all the tourist agencies in the region celebrate it.
This decision comes together with a significant and sustained decline in the last months of the virus. And to this decision for bordering foreigners is added the general opening of borders on November 1st. This means that all travelers from anywhere in the world will be able to return to Mendoza to taste our wonderful wines.
Now, surely you are wondering what are the requirements that all travelers must meet to enter Argentina?
-Complete vaccination schedule, with the date of the last application at least 14 days prior to arrival in the country -Negative PCR test in the 72 hours prior to shipment or antigen at the point of entry until defined by the health authority, -CRP test on day 5 to 7 of arrival until defined by the health authority,
These admission conditions are up-to-date and will surely evolve as vaccination advances and virus positivity drops in all regions of the country.
On the occasion of the commemoration of International Earth Day, in this edition we will review the most sustainable and ecofriendly winery in Mendoza: SuperUco winery.
On every April 22nd, the International Day of Mother Earth is celebrated to call for reflection and awareness about taking care of the environment. This commemorative date that you have surely heard more than once had its origin in 2009 when it was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in what was a clear effort to promote awareness and the generation of concrete actions for the care of the planet.
In the city of Mendoza we have a winery that is an example of sustainability in all the actions carried out to make its wines. The SuperUco winery, located in The Vines Resort & Spa complex 104 kilometers away from the City of Mendoza, is a winery that has received international awards on multiple occasions for its sustainable practices. We can say that SuperUco is not only an ecofriendly winery, but that it goes a step further by making biodynamism and sustainability as part of its philosophy when designing its winery, taking care of its vineyards, making its wines and even carrying out the bottling of each unit.
SuperUco is a new winery in the Uco Valley area that was born as the materialization of the dream of the Michellini brothers in 2011. The imprint of these four brothers soon became a unique seal that converged with the terroir of their estates in Gualtallary and Altamira to create their most outstanding labels: Calcáreo, SuperUco and Genitori.
One of the objectives of the brothers when thinking about both the oenological and commercial proposal of their winery was to make wines of the highest quality and following 100% biodynamic processes, betting on organic agriculture working in an ecological way and intervening as little as possible in the maturation of the vine. At the SuperUco winery, which we visit almost daily on our private wine tours, it is completely designed in a circular fashion following the shapes of nature, which are never straight or perfect. At SuperUco everything is circular: the winery, the vineyards and the organic garden.
As a result of these efforts, in 2020 the winery was awarded the first prize in the Sustainable Practices category awarded by Best of Wine Tourism, organized every year by Great Wine Capitals. Pretty impressive isn’t it?
What a better way to wait for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic than to dream of all the destinations to visit in the future? For this reason, in this edition of the Driver in Mendoza blog we will go over some issues that we consider important when organizing a trip to the land of the sun and good wine: Mendoza, Argentina.
Driver in Mendoza is not only an agency specialized in private wine tours and tours through the wine regions and wineries of Mendoza, but we like to define ourselves as something beyond an agency: we design wine experiences in Mendoza to the ideal fit of each one of our visitors and it is precisely because of our experience with hundreds of tourists over the years that we want to transmit the fruit of those experiences to our future visitors.
1.Choosing the perfect hotel for your trip is Crucial
When our visitors ask us for recommendations on where to stay in Mendoza, the first thing we ask is how do you imagine living this experience? In the region we have many types of hotels but it’s necessary to know if you are looking for a quiet and relaxed experience in the middle of vineyards such as Entre Cielos, Cavas Wine Lodge, Alpasión Lodge and Casa Petrini, among many other excellent wine hotels. Or maybe do you just want to experience everyday life in the middle of the city of Mendoza? In this case, our recommendations are classic hotels such as Sheraton, Park Hyatt, Huentala, Diplomatic and Raíces Aconcagua.
2. Design your itinerary so that you can visit the three most important wine regions of Mendoza:
When planning a trip to Mendoza, Argentina especially to savor its different terroirs and enjoy its Malbecs, we insist on the need to reserve three days to get to know the three regions: Valle de Uco, Luján de Cuyo and Maipú. Each of the regions with traits that totally distinguish it from the other regions, you can learn more about these traits in the following link
3. Choose the right combination of wineries for you:
Mendoza is one of the top destinations in the world for wine tourism, so it’s not surprising that we offer a wide range of wineries for all tastes: from small, family or boutique wineries to large highly industrialized wineries with cutting edge technology. Our Driver in Mendoza team will make sure to guide you through the selection process so that you can choose the perfect combination of wineries to spend an ideal tour day. We are passionate about guiding our visitors around our land and taking them to their dream places.
Learn more about wine tourism at the Monteviejo Winery, one of the favorites for visitors who come to Mendoza in search of the highest quality private wine tours in the region.
Only 120 kilometers from the capital of Mendoza, is the Monteviejo winery, internationally recognized for a quality of wines that exquisitely combines with landscapes capable of confusing the visitor between reality and fantasy. Monteviejo is a winery at the foot of the Andes Mountains that stands out with labels such as the Linda Flor and Petite Fleur lines of wines.
The winery, which is located within the Clos de los Siete group of properties in the department of Tunuyán and in the heart of the Uco Valley, began construction at the beginning of 2001, making its first harvest only in 2002. In our private wine tours through the Monteviejo winery, our visitors enjoy tastings in the winery, a dreamy landscape on the terrace of the winery or a perfectly paired lunch by the chef in charge of the kitchen and the team of sommeliers from the winery. Definitely, these are some of the qualities of the wine experience in Monteviejo that make this winery one of the favorites for visitors to Driver in Mendoza.
Welcome to the new Driver in Mendoza blog! In this space we will share reviews, stories, sites of interest and information in general that may be of help to all those who wish to visit our city in the future.
In this first edition, we will be presenting the three main wine regions of Mendoza: their differences, similarities, landscapes, their most well-known wineries and labels. The regions that we will talk about in this article are: Maipú, Luján de Cuyo and Valle de Uco or Uco Valley.
1. Maipú: everything you need to know about the first wine-growing region First of all, you should know that Maipú is a department in the province of Mendoza that was created in 1858, a fact that is not minor when talking about the long history of winemaking in Argentina. Even before its formal creation as a location, the area is definitely a pioneer in the region in terms of Argentine wine production. In our wine tours through this region, we like to highlight the way in which you will find a great mix of wineries: from the oldest and most historical, to the most modern and innovative. The region has 154 wineries and 35 olive farms, many of them open to national and international tourism. The wineries most visited by Driver in Mendoza passengers are: Familia Zuccardi, Rutini, El Enemigo (Casa Vigil), Trapiche, and Trivento, among others.
The region enjoyed an impeccable reputation as it became the richest industrial area for Argentine viticulture, even today Maipú is in the first place on the olive-growing map of the province for a significant production and quality of olives, which has marked the production of dozens of products derived from the olive tree such as oils, olives and even cosmetic products. The geography of this town is characterized by being a plain within the Mendoza territory, which together with the rivers that cross the region have allowed an optimal development of agriculture, mainly for the vine, olive trees and other fruits and vegetables.
2. Luján de Cuyo: an unmissable Malbec classic, from Agrelo to Las Compuertas Located on the banks of the Mendoza River is the department of Luján de Cuyo, land of the world famous Malbec. A region known for its famous wineries and incredible landscapes that meet the vineyards and the Andes. This department of the province of Mendoza is located only 19km south of the capital and has managed to position itself as one of the most chosen destinations by tourists who visit Mendoza. Luján de Cuyo seems to bring together the best of Mendoza: mountains, rivers, vineyards and wineries, reservoirs and even has one of the most important gastronomic centers in Mendoza: the picturesque town of Chacras de Coria is a small urban center always at the forefront of the latest gastronomic trends, ‘Chacras’ as we people from Mendoza calls it, have become one of the must-see destinations for those who visit us. A dinner in this town followed by a walk through its main square is a must.
On the other hand, it is worth highlighting the famous Agrelo region in the world of wine, noted for its production of high quality Malbec, it has its own denomination of origin controlled since 1989, becoming the first region of Mendoza to receive this very important distinction. Agrelo is home to some of the most important wineries in Mendoza such as Catena Zapata, Viña Cobos, Chandon, Dominio del Plata, Ruca Malen and Pulenta Estate, among others. However, despite the fact that this is the best known region of Luján, we cannot forget that in this department there are also other renowned wineries such as Lagarde, Luigi Bosca, Norton and Nieto Senetiner, among a dozen other large, medium and little.
3. Valle de Uco: high altitude wines inspired by the Andes Mountains
The world-famous Uco Valley is located 90km from the City of Mendoza and extends throughout three departments of the province: Tupungato, Tunuyán and San Carlos. The newest and most innovative region in the Mendoza wine industry, specialized in high altitude wines, is located at an altitude of 1,200 meters. Valle de Uco is an area that borders the Andes mountain range and, therefore, is characterized by altitudes that range between 900 and 1700 meters high. It is the optimal combination of climatic and geographical conditions: high altitude, 250 sunny days a year, little rain and temperature range, among others, that make Valle de Uco wines unique in the world.
Within the Uco Valley, of course there are micro regions such as Gualtallary or Paraje Altamira, micro regions that stand out for having small differences with respect to the terroir of other areas of the Uco Valley. Differences that in the final result of each label seem not to be so small and that is why each of these regions has been struggling for some years to obtain its own controlled designation of origin. Among the most visited wineries in the Uco Valley are Salentein, Andeluna, Monteviejo, La Azul, Piedra Infinita de Zuccardi, Clos de los Siete and Piedra Negra.
This area, home of luxury wine tourism in Mendoza, not only has large wineries of international weight, but also in the area there are more and more luxury hotel developments specialized in providing a wine experience in Mendoza, an example of these resorts are complexes such as The Vines, Casa de Uco, Casa Petrini, Posada Salentein, Lodge Atamisque and Alpasion Lodge, among many more.