Come for the wine. Stay for everything else.

There is a moment in Mendoza when the landscape wakes up.

Winter retreats. The days become longer. The vineyards turn green again. And behind them, the Andes — still dusted with snow — rise almost impossibly close.

It is spring.

And between September and November, Mendoza is one of those places we find very difficult to resist.

Not simply because of the wine.

Because the Mendoza we love is about what happens between the wine.

A horse beneath the Andes.

Lunch that somehow becomes an entire afternoon.

The smell of something cooking over fire.

Meeting the person who actually made the bottle in your glass.

And that wonderful moment at the end of the day when the mountains turn pink and there is absolutely no reason to go anywhere else.

Drink less. Drink better.

It is tempting to arrive in Mendoza with a list of wineries.

Don’t.

Or at least, make it a very short one.

We would always choose one extraordinary tasting over four rushed ones.

Meet the winemaker. Walk through the vineyard. Understand why something was planted here and not twenty kilometres away. Taste something you would never find at home.

Then sit down for lunch.

Mendoza has become one of South America’s most exciting gastronomic destinations, but what we love about eating here is still wonderfully simple.

Fire.

Local produce.

A beautiful bottle.

A table looking towards the vines.

And time.

Lots of it.

This is not the place for a 45-minute lunch.

The next morning, forget about wine

Wake early.

Put on boots.

And head towards the mountains.

One of our favourite ways to experience Mendoza has nothing to do with a wine glass at all.

It is on horseback.

As the vineyards disappear behind you, the landscape becomes drier, bigger and wilder.

There is dust beneath the horses.

An enormous sky above you.

And the Andes ahead.

Perhaps lunch is an asado somewhere in the foothills. Perhaps you ride for a few hours and return to the vineyards afterwards.

It doesn’t really matter.

What matters is the contrast.

A long lunch one day. A saddle the next.

Pleasure and movement.

Wine and wilderness.

That combination is what makes Mendoza so much more interesting than simply another wine region.

Spring is particularly suited to this rhythm: longer, sunnier days invite you to spend more time outside, whether walking, cycling, riding or simply sitting among the vines.

Sleep among the vines

Where you stay matters here, because your hotel shouldn’t remove you from Mendoza.

It should bring you closer to it.

At Awasi Mendoza, 17 private villas sit within a vineyard at the foot of the Andes. What we particularly like is the freedom: private guiding and a 4×4 allow the days to be shaped around each traveller — wine one day, perhaps horses or hiking the next.

The Vines Resort & Spa in the Uco Valley is another favourite, particularly for travellers who want wine and gastronomy to sit at the centre of the experience.

And Casa de Uco feels beautifully connected to the scale of the Uco Valley, bringing together vineyards, nature, food and the Andes rather than treating them as separate experiences.

We don’t believe there is a “best hotel” in Mendoza.

There is simply the right one for the way you want to experience it.

And then? Keep going.

This is perhaps our favourite way to think about Mendoza.

Don’t necessarily make it the entire journey.

Make it a chapter.

Begin in Buenos Aires.

Give yourself a few days of restaurants, galleries, architecture, late dinners and that unmistakable energy the city has.

Then fly west.

Suddenly the buildings disappear.

The horizon opens.

For four or five days, slow everything down in Mendoza.

Drink beautifully. Ride beneath the Andes. Have lunches without looking at the time. Leave an afternoon completely unplanned.

And then change worlds once more.

Go south.

To Patagonia.

Trade vineyards for forests, glaciers and enormous open landscapes.

Walk if you want to walk. Ride if you want to ride. Navigate across a lake. Or simply sit somewhere extraordinary and watch the weather move across the mountains.

Three places.

Three completely different rhythms.

Buenos Aires. Mendoza. Patagonia.

City. Wine country. Wilderness.

And suddenly what began as a few days drinking wine in Mendoza has become something much bigger:

a journey through Argentina.

Mendoza, our way

When we design Mendoza at Latitude Boreal, we don’t begin with a list of wineries.

We begin with you.

Do you know everything about wine, or simply know that you enjoy drinking it?

Would you rather spend the morning with a winemaker or on horseback?

Do you want a Michelin-level lunch or an asado somewhere beneath the mountains?

Three nights or five?

A full day planned — or nowhere to be until dinner?

There isn’t one correct Mendoza.

And perhaps that’s precisely why we love it.

Our version has fewer wineries.

Longer lunches.

More time outside.

A little dust on your boots.

A very good bottle waiting when you return.

And the Andes, always somewhere in the background.

Come in spring.

Stay longer than you think.

And whatever you do, don’t schedule lunch too tightly.

The Andes aren’t going anywhere.

The Latitude Journal