Luján de Cuyo is Argentina's first appellation and the closest serious wine district to Mendoza city — the bodegas start about 16 kilometres from the centre and spread over roughly the same distance again. You can be tasting within half an hour of leaving your hotel, which is why it is the day trip most visitors to Mendoza actually take.
Malbec is the reason. The old vines here, at roughly 900 to 1,100 metres, give the darker, more structured style that made Argentine Malbec famous, and the Andes sit on the western horizon through most of it.
The region rewards booking. Many bodegas do lunch as well as tasting, and the long asado-and-Malbec lunch is the point rather than an add-on. Harvest is February to April. Summer is hot and dry; the vineyards are irrigated by snowmelt channels that are worth asking about.
