WINERY TOURS WITH LUNCH IN MENDOZA

Choosing a winery that serves lunch is the easy part. Fitting two of them into the same day, with the tastings, the drive between valleys and a table booked at the right hour, is where most plans come apart. Restaurants inside wineries work by reservation only, they seat one or two sittings a day, and in harvest season they are full weeks ahead.

These are the tours where lunch is already part of the day: wineries confirmed, table reserved, a private guide and a driver, so the only thing left to decide is which wine region you want to spend the day in. If you are still choosing, our wine tours in Mendoza cover every region we work in.

Lunch at a Mendoza winery is a sit-down meal of three or four courses, each paired with a label from the estate, served between one and three in the afternoon. Most kitchens are run by a named chef and cook with what the region grows: beef, goat from the south of the province, stone fruit, olive oil pressed a few kilometres away.

It is also the slowest part of the day, and that is the point. Count on about two hours at the table. That is why a lunch tour visits two wineries and not four: one in the morning for the vineyard and cellar, one after the meal, and the driving planned so that nobody is watching the clock.

Dietary requirements are arranged when you book, not on the day. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free menus are available at every winery we work with, as long as we know in advance.

Luján de Cuyo

Half an hour from most hotels in the city, which makes it the region that works best when you also want the afternoon free. Old vine Malbec, estates with proper restaurants and the shortest drive of the four. See the wineries and tours in Luján de Cuyo.

Uco Valley

An hour and a half south, higher up and against the mountains. This is where the architecture and the tasting menus are most ambitious, and where a lunch stretches longest. It is a full day, not a morning. Our Uco Valley wine tours are built around it.

Maipú

The oldest wine district in the province, next door to the city. Family bodegas, olive oil mills and simpler, generous cooking. It pairs well with Luján de Cuyo in a single day, which is how most of our tours combine them.

San Rafael

The southern oasis, 230 kilometres away, with its own identity and its own harvest. Lunches here are smaller and more personal, at estates that receive a handful of people at a time. Worth a day of its own if you are staying there: see the wineries of San Rafael.

One region per day. Pick-up is usually around nine in the morning and you are back at the hotel between five and six, with the first winery visited before the meal and the second after it.

Book early if you are travelling between late February and April: harvest fills the winery restaurants first, and the tables that seat eight or more go first of all. Outside harvest, a week or two of notice is normally enough.

If you would rather read up on the wineries themselves before choosing a tour, our directory of wineries to visit in Mendoza lists them region by region.