Mooching around Mendoza’s vineyards is never a bad idea, but head there at the end of summer and you’ll be lucky enough to catch the cultural highlight of the Mendocino calendar – la Fiesta de la Vendimia – Mendoza’s grape harvest festival.
We’re just weeks away from the perfect moment to visit Mendoza: vendimia. Harvest time is the busiest in the province, and offers up the most fun, too. The vines have kept to their side of the bargain and it’s the turn of grape pickers, agronomists and oenologists to get the latest vintages rolling. You don’t have to be a wine fan to enjoy Argentina’s second-most visited region – though it helps. This TRA accommodation guide will help you choose where to stay in Mendoza’s glorious countryside complete with obligatory Andes panorama.
THE BEST WINE EXPERIENCE HOTELS IN MENDOZA
Vendimia or “grape harvest” holds huge importance in all 18 corners of the province, bringing together mendocinos from Malargüe in the south to Rivadavia in the east and Luján de Cuyo in the west. Named one of the top 10 harvest celebrations in the world by National Geographic, the main aim is to give thanks to the patron saint of grape harvests, the Virgen de la Carrodilla.
When you hear about over two thousand people gathering on the streets of Buenos Aires, odds are it’s a rousing protest or pro-government rally. Yet when similar numbers took to the streets in Boedo last Saturday night, it wasn’t saucepan bashing or Peronist chants keeping them going. Instead, tango music played and Malbec bottles were drained, as the third edition of Boedo’s Vendimia harvest festival got under way…
For a country that takes such pride in its produce (and needs no excuse for a fiesta), it’s remarkable that Argentina’s food and drink festivals are only just gathering pace. Naturally, beef and wine are still the headline acts, but are joined by an increasing number of more specialist events. Here is a look ahead to the best Argentina festivals and fairs in 2012 aimed at the food and wine enthusiast in everyone.
February marks the beginning of the harvest in South America, and nowhere is this more celebrated than Mendoza, one of the world’s great wine capitals. Tucked into the foothills of the Andes, Mendoza and its people have a long history viticulture and wine making and have been producing wine since the 1550s. Vendimia — Mendoza’s wine harvest festival, takes place on the first weekend of March each year. This event has been aptly described as a ‘Eurovision Song Contest rolled up with a North American beauty pageant, served up with a South American street carnival and washed down with lots of wine.’…