Cuyo (Central Andes) Region Guide

Cuyo is Argentina’s wine country and the approach to the highest mountain outside Asia, and the two sit within sight of each other.

Mendoza produces the great majority of Argentine wine, and Malbec — a grape that had all but died out in its native France — became here what it is now. The vineyards run along the foot of the Andes at 900 to 1,500 metres, irrigated by snowmelt through channels the Huarpe people dug before the Spanish arrived, with the mountains as a permanent backdrop.

Aconcagua, at 6,961 metres, is the highest peak in the Americas and in both hemispheres outside Asia, and it is walkable — a very serious high-altitude trek rather than a technical climb.

North in San Juan Province, Ischigualasto is a desert of eroded rock that has produced some of the earliest dinosaurs known anywhere.

The wine regions

Three areas, and they differ. Maipu is closest to the city, flattest and easiest — the classic bicycle tour, with old bodegas and olive oil producers. Lujan de Cuyo is higher, the historic home of Malbec, with the grander estates. The Uco Valley is highest at 1,000 to 1,500 metres, coldest, newest and currently the most interesting, with dramatic modern wineries against the mountains.

Aconcagua

The park is entered from Puente del Inca on the Chilean highway. Day walkers can reach the Confluencia camp and see the south face; the full ascent by the normal route takes eighteen to twenty days with acclimatisation and needs a permit, a licensed operator and real fitness.

The high road to Chile

Route 7 through the Uspallata valley past the Puente del Inca natural bridge and the Christ the Redeemer statue at the old pass, with the south face of Aconcagua visible from the road.

San Juan Province and La Rioja Province

Ischigualasto — the Valley of the Moon — and the red cliffs of Talampaya next door, both UNESCO-listed for their fossil beds.

Adventure

Rafting the Mendoza river, paragliding, and the thermal springs at Cacheuta.

Cuyo is a desert region that made itself green, and that engineering is the foundation of its identity.

Water as culture

The Huarpe people irrigated these valleys with channels before the Spanish arrived, and the Spanish extended the system. Mendoza city is built around a grid of acequias — open irrigation channels running along every street under the plane trees — which water some hundred thousand street trees and turn a desert city into a shaded one. Falling into one is a local rite of passage.

Italian and Spanish immigration

The wine industry was built in the late nineteenth century by Italian and Spanish immigrants, and Mendoza’s surnames, food and family firms reflect it. Many bodegas are still in the fourth or fifth generation of the same family.

The 1861 earthquake

Mendoza was destroyed and several thousand people killed; the city was rebuilt on a new grid with wide streets and frequent squares specifically so that people would have somewhere to run to. That plan is why the city feels as it does.

San Martin

The liberator raised and trained his Army of the Andes here before crossing to free Chile and Peru in 1817, and the region regards that as its defining contribution.

Outdoors

Mendocinos ski, climb, raft and cycle, and the mountains are part of ordinary life.

Water is the whole story in Cuyo. This is desert — Mendoza receives around 200 millimetres of rain a year — and everything green exists because Andean snowmelt is channelled to it. Snowpack has been declining, the Mendoza river has run low, and irrigation for wine and agriculture competes with urban supply. Short showers are not a token here.

Choose smaller wineries. The region has hundreds, and family-run bodegas give a better visit and keep the money local. Book ahead; almost none take walk-ins.

On Aconcagua, the permit system, the waste rules and the medical checks exist because people die on this mountain most seasons. Carry out all waste including human, use the licensed operators, and respect the acclimatisation schedule rather than compressing it.

Ischigualasto and Talampaya are UNESCO sites with fossils still eroding out; stay with your guide and take nothing.

Do not drink and drive on a wine tour — use a driver or a bicycle.

March and April are the best months: the harvest is on, the vineyards turn gold and red, the weather is settled and warm, and the Vendimia festival falls at the start of March.

September to November is the other good window — spring blossom, snow still on the Andes, and fewer visitors.

December to February is hot, reaching the high thirties in Mendoza, and is the Aconcagua climbing season, which runs from mid-November to mid-March and is very short.

June to August is cold and clear, with skiing at Las Lenas and Penitentes and the Andean passes to Chile liable to close for snow.

Zonda wind can arrive any time from May to November — a hot, dry, dust-laden downslope wind that raises the temperature dramatically and makes everyone irritable.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the region

Wine tasting here is cheap by international standards and the food at the better bodegas is excellent value for what it is.