A Week in Argentina – Part 4: Park Hyatt & Mendoza, Argentina

Previous Trip Notes
A Week in Argentina – Part 3: Santiago, and our 2nd trip to Hell (SCL)
A Week in Argentina – Part 2: Copa Airlines Business Class ORD > PTY > SCL
A Week in Argentina – Part 1: The Setup & Arrival to Hell (ORD)

Our flight from Santiago to Mendoza was quick. We arrived, grabbed our checked bags, and then headed out to find our rental car. We used a company called Auto Mendoza, as they were one of the only companies that could guarantee an automatic transmission (although historically when foreign rental car companies guarantee an automatic transmission, they rarely pull through with one). The reviews online were very good, so I wasn’t terribly concerned, but there’s always a voice in the back of your head warning you against using a service outside of the main car rental companies. We walked out of the baggage claim area, and there was someone standing there with an Auto Mendoza sign. They promptly took us to the car – a 6-seater with an automatic transmission. Everything was great. And easy. Except they said we had to pay for the parking to be able to take it out of the airport parking lot. 60 Argentine pesos. As it was day 1, I wasn’t sure how much that was, but assumed we had been taken…except, 60 Argentine pesos isn’t even $1 USD. OK, no problem. We popped up the GPS (I always use my Verizon international plan which costs $10/day), which said we were under 15 minutes away from the Park Hyatt.

We arrived at the hotel, unscathed, except we had to circle the hotel twice before figuring out where the entrance was to park the car. Parking was included in our award stay since NSPwife has Globalist status. The lobby was nice, what you would expect from a Park Hyatt:

There was an attached casino:

NSPwife and I had used a confirmed suite upgrade, and was given a standard suite upgrade. It was very nice, although a part of me had hoped to get the Governor’s suite or Presidential suite like some other Globalists had experienced. The suite had a full large room when entering, a bar/kitchen area, one and a half bathrooms, and a nice bedroom:

NSPpeanut was adamant that we head to the hotel pool. Right away. So we did. It was a typical Park Hyatt pool; not huge, but very architecturally pleasing. It was calming just to be in the pool area, with a fountain wall and symmetrical aesthetics:

After the pool, we headed back to the room to relax for a few minutes before heading to Grill Q, one of the restaurants in the hotel, for dinner. We were exhausted from our previous 36 hours of travel, and just wanted to get a good asado steak and Malbec wine. The restaurant delivered on both accounts, and this is when I first realized how advantageous traveling to Argentina at this time of the decade was. Matt from Live and Let’s Fly had written an article on the benefits of traveling to Argentina with such a strong exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and Argentine peso, but to experience it first-hand was completely different. The bill came for our party of four adults and a child, including beers and a bottle of wine, multiple steaks, appetizers, and desserts, and the cost was…$44. Including tax and tip. At the Park Hyatt. It was close to Southeast Asia pricing, but in the same time-zone and with a flair for culinary gastrosophy, which would be a theme throughout our trip.

There are three main wine regions near Mendoza: Maipu, the closest, Lujan de Cuyo (Lujan), just far enough outside Mendoza to feel like you are in a wine valley, and Uco Valley, way out in “wine country.” We planned our trip for our full first day to take place in Lujan. As we have been to Napa Valley on multiple occasions, as well as Stellenbosch in South Africa, it was interesting that when we researched wine tastings in Argentina, just how different the experience down there would be. From all our research, it wasn’t just a hit-and-run type of activity. You didn’t go from winery to winery, with with a quick optional tour and obligatory tasting. It was meant to be an experience.

Our first stop, at 10:30am, was Achaval-Ferrer. It came highly recommended, and was a seemingly quick trip from Mendoza. They were waiting for us when we arrived, and we were taken to the front sitting area with one other group of exchange students from Denmark. There we embarked on a six-wine tasting, with the host giving us lessons on each wine. It was a nice sunny day (like 89% of days in the region, on average), and we were sipping wine while overlooking a vineyard and the Andes mountains. It’s hard to get much better than that…

…but it did. We booked our lunch and wine tasting after Achaval-Ferrer at Ruca Malen. It was a 5-10 minute drive from Achaval, and had impressive entrance. What awaited for us was a seven-course lunch, a seven-glass wine tasting, and nearly three-hour gastronomic experience…Given NSPwife was with child, I had more than my fair share of wine. They also had a fantastic offering for NSPpeanut. I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

The food was fantastic. The wine was fantastic. The scenery was fantastic.

And the price, with the conversion, was $57 per adult at $16 for NSPpeanut. Almost inconceivable. An equivalent experience in Napa would be $250++ per person, at minimum. And as you can see from the photos, this wasn’t just something that was thrown together. It was a top-notch chef, thinking about ingredients, flavors, wine-pairings, and presentation.

After the “morning” wine tasting and the three-plus hour lunch, we were spent. We went back to the hotel, grabbed a bit of rest, and then went out to find a local restaurant. There were a few suggestions from the concierge, but we wound up hopping into a restaurant that showcased their asado grill as we walked by. The food, again, was very good. I opted to try a localish beer:

It was a great day, and the weather was perfect for a stroll back to the hotel. NSPwife and NSPpeanut headed to bed, and I went to explore the casino.

It was heavily slot-centric, with all of the internationally-popular slot themes. There were electronic table games, and about ten different table games: one craps table, four roulette tables, and a few blackjack tables. Most games were not open for 20ish hours of the day, with the exception of roulette, which was always open. The bet spreads were insane: $0.20-$2.00. That’s right. A $2 max bet! I had some fun, and good luck, and retired in the early morning.

We woke up and headed to the Park Hyatt restaurant, for the buffet (which is included for Globalist members). It was a pretty good spread, although not quite up to typical Park Hyatt standards. In addition, there was no variety during the week. Every single day had the exact same menu.

We planned for a wine-break on the 2nd day, and decided to drive out to Potrerillos and visit the reservoir. It’s always a pretty drive when driving along the Andes mountains, and the blue waters of the reservoir did not disappoint:

We hiked around a little bit, and found a place to send up the drone, albeit the high-speed winds did not make it easy:

We drove back to Mendoza, rested a bit – with an obligatory pool adventure, and then headed out to a very nice dinner at Azafran. This was recommended by the concierge as one of the nicest restaurants in Mendoza, and lived up to its billing:

It even had its own wine cellar to explore their various wines, with sommeliers to assist:

Overall it was an excellent dinner. We left full of food and drink, and walked the 5-10 minute walk back to the hotel to retire for the night.

We woke up for our final full day fairly early, as we were heading out to Uco Valley, a 90-minute drive. We grabbed breakfast again at the hotel, jumped in the rental car, and a quick and beautiful 90 minutes later were pulling into The Vines. We had three different reservations:

1. Winery Tour and Viticulture Session
2. Blending Session
3. Lunch

The Vines began in 2005, with 250 acres of land nestled deep in the Uco Valley region of Argentina, surrounded by the sprawling Andes mountains. It has since grown to over 1,500 acres, with individual owners of different plots of land – all separated into different vineyards, each with their own mix of grape types. As we are very interested in one of the vineyard plots, we wanted to learn everything we could about The Vines. In recent years, The Vines added a full resort. We pulled up to the resort and met Pablo, our guide for the Winery Tour. We jumped in his truck and headed over to the wine-making buildings. We learned a great deal about the wine-making process, watched someone’s finished product being labeled, and were excited to start tasting wines at a blending session.

I have to say, of the many great experiences I’ve had – from falconing in the Arabian desert to bungee jumping in Queenstown, New Zealand, the blending session is near the top of the list. We started tasting three different varietals coming directly from the tanks, and a chemist led us through the process, explaining the tastes we were experiencing prior to the barrel process. We tried a Malbec, a Cab Franc, and a Merlot. We then were given a specific type of cheese that we needed to try just before sampling each wine a second time. This cheese would help counter the acidity and give us an idea of what the wine would taste like after being in a barrel for approximately six months. By trying the wines this way, we could see where the tastes and flavors were heading through the barrel-aging process. We then started to mix and match the various wines. Was the 100% Malbec too aggressive and strong? Just add 20% Cab Franc and see how that changes the flavor profile. Still a bit too much? Go to 50%. You could slowly blend the wine that best suited your palette. If you owned a plot, you could trade your grape varietals with other plot owners to make the exact wine you want. The Vines would then take care of the wine-making, bottling, labeling, and storage. The blending session was sensational, and we were in good spirits walking the long 50-yards to the restaurant at The Vines for lunch.

The food was phenomenal, and the scenery equally so:

NSPpeanut loved chasing the frogs in the lake:

The wine-making lesson, blending session, and lunch, took just over five hours. We were full, again of great food and drink, and pulled out of The Vines to head back to Mendoza. The day was great, and exhausting, so much so that we completely forgot to stop by the winemaker’s village for one final tasting of the day. We all took naps back at the hotel, then took a quick jaunt to the pool for one final swim session with NSPpeanut. We were too tired to go out, and ate dinner at Bistro M, the same restaurant in the hotel that breakfast is served in.

I walked around the hotel once final time, while very nice, it wasn’t quite up to the setting of the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires:

We went to sleep, making sure to wake up in time to make it to the airport hours ahead of time. The last thing we wanted was a repeat of our struggles in O’Hare or Santiago airport. Little did we know, it was about to be far worse…