🇦🇷 Llegamos a Mendoza! Join us for our First Day in Mendoza: Staying at Susana Balbo Winemaker’s House & Visiting the Winery 🍇

Here we are! 🇦🇷 In Argentina – the heart of the world’s malbec production and one of the most exciting wine regions in the world! And we’re also on to the second part of our South American wine adventure! We couldn’t have been more excited to arrive in Argentina, but there were high expectations considering the amazing time we had in Chile!

As with all travel, we ran into a bit of a snafu – this time when the Chile/Argentina border crossing was closed in the Andes due to a crazy storm that had hit the previous day. We had opted to take the bus across the Andes in order to see them first hand (buses in South America are MUCH different than the Greyhounds of the US, so rest assured that we would have been very comfortable and safe crossing the mountains that way). So we were delayed a day while we coordinated a flight to Mendoza. We had the buffer time built into our agenda, so we used the time to explore a bit of Santiago!

Our Arrival in Mendoza ✈️

Upon arrival in Mendoza, we headed straight to Susana Balbo Winemaker’s House in Luján de Cuyo, one of the region’s most important wine subregions. We had lunch plans at the hotel and a winery tour booked for that afternoon. We arrived sooner than expected, but the team was amazing and got us settled without batting an eyelash! 

If you’re not familiar, Mendoza sits at the foothills of the Andes Mountains and is Argentina’s most important wine region, known globally for high-altitude Malbec vineyards. The combination of sunny days, cool nights, and irrigation that begins as snow in the Andes creates wines with intensity and freshness.

And while our site is definitely about the wine, Susana Balbo Winemaker’s House is the place to stay in Mendoza! It is a small, luxury boutique hotel nestled right in the heart of Luján de Cuyo. The property features just eight standalone casitas arranged around a stunning swimming pool, creating an intimate feel that truly makes you feel like a guest in the winemaker’s private home…And the service is just beyond outstanding. 

After getting settled, we enjoyed the most delicious lunch and wine pairing in the restaurant, La Vida. It was exceptional! I can still taste the onion tart paired with the smooth Susana Balbo Signature Malbec. Heaven!

And while we could have easily enjoyed the pool all afternoon after that delicious lunch, we just HAD to visit the her winery! It would have been rude to not…we were staying in her HOUSE after all 😂 

So we made the trip out to her winery, and what an introduction to the wines of Argentina!

Susana Balbo Wines

My partner in wine and I have had Susana Balbo wines at home, and even have a few bottles in our cellar. So it was really interesting to visit the winery to see where the wine is actually made. This is one reason why we love wine travel, and typically buy wines on our travels. Connecting the wine, the place, the memories, and the flavor is something we really enjoy. (And wow have we done it on this trip!)

We were met by Gerardo, our host, when we arrived at the bodega and tasting room, and began our tour. This is when we first got the view that will forever be in my memory….lush green grapevines, dotted with plump ripe grapes, set in front of the snow capped Andes. Just awesome.

The Nosotros Tour & Tasting Experience

After drinking in that view, we toured the winery and learned a bit more about Susana Balbo and the history. I got chills learning about how she really was the first female winemaker in Argentina and thinking about how challenging that must have been. She started her career in Salta, north of Mendoza, which is ironically where I studied as an exchange student many, many years ago. 

I appreciated hearing how she focused on whites, and specifically the Torrontés varietal, which is one we don’t see often in the states. And white wines are certainly not the first varietals that come to mind when I think of Argentina. 

If you’ve not had it, Torrontés is Argentina’s signature white grape, primarily grown in high-altitude vineyards. It is known for being very aromatic with a lot of fruit and floral notes. But despite its sweet, perfume-like scent, the wine is typically crisp and very dry, so it’s very refreshing and clean. This is the kind of white I like very much (and is great for a relaxing afternoon on Manasota Beach! 🏖️)

Today, Susana. Balbo’s estate includes over 400 hectares of vines, with just over 16 grown at the winery’s location in Agrelo, where we visited. She produces around 25 wines, and more than 200,000 cases each year. So she’s definitely done well in winemaking!

Once we completed the tour, we returned to the tasting room to try her iconic wines called Nosotros. In this tasting, we sampled three wines:

• 2020 Nosotros Corcel
• 2020 Nosotros Sofita
• 2020 Nosotros Single Vineyard Nomadé

We appreciated them all, but the Nomadé was my favorite. Nomadé takes the best harvest of each year, and it was clear to me that this was it! The Corcel was my second favorite – a 100% Malbec grown not there at the winery, but in Gualtallary. This will become important as we continue our adventure, so take note wine lovers!

Luckily for us, Gerardo must have known we’d had a tough travel day 😀 as he then invited us to try the 2018 Corcel, and offered me the 2021 Susana Balbo Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, and my partner in wine, the 2020 Signature Malbec. Both were delightful reds, and since Cab is my usual go-to red, I appreciated AND enjoyed it very much. It was different from the typical Napa Cabs that I tend to gravitate toward, but in the very best way.

We finished our tasting reluctantly, and started the journey back to the inn. It was the perfect finish to our first day in Argentina! 

First Impressions

Reflecting on our first day in Argentina compared to our time in Chile highlighted both similarities and significant differences. In the Colchagua Valley, it was rural, while in Luján de Cuyo, it was still part of Mendoza city. I don’t think we’d had enough variation in our wine tastings at this point to compare the wines of Chile (check out our travels in Chile – Arrival Day, Day 1, and Day 2) versus the wines of Mendoza, but that will come in a future post. Until then, all I can say is that it would have been very difficult to get me to pick one place over the other at this point in our trip!

🍷 Stay tuned as we head out on a full day of tastings in my next post! You won’t want to miss it, so sign up for email notifications for each post. And if you have questions about our trip, or the wines, drop us a comment!