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| Vineyards of Mendoza with Andes Mountains |
Ironically Malbec is not the best pairing with empanadas – the small meat and cheese filled turnovers of Argentina. Instead most locals recommend Torrontes wine as a better match. This is just one of the tips wine tourists learn when they visit the fifth largest wine producing country in the world.
Wine tourism in Argentina is on the rise, spurred on by the devalued peso that has recently dropped 30% against the US dollar. This makes visiting Argentina attractive not only to Americans, but to many Brazilians as well who find excellent deals on wine and food. A juicy Argentina rib eye can be purchased at fine restaurants for as little as $11 US.
I was fortunate enough to spend 2 weeks here on a Fulbright Scholarship during March of 2014. My responsibilities included teaching at the National University of Cuyo on the global wine market and wine tourism. In addition, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit several exciting wineries in the Mendoza area, and then fly to Salta for a few days to continue my lectures and visit even more wineries. Obviously I was in bliss with this assignment, as there is nothing I like better than visiting the wine regions of the world.
Following is a series of posts describing some of my visits to the various sites and wineries around Mendoza. Portions of these posts were published in Wine Business Monthly article.