The Other Wine Route: 10 Wineries in Mendoza You Should Know

In Mayor Drummond, Luján de Cuyo, Carmelo Patti Winery proves that a great wine tourism experience doesn’t require monumental architecture or a multi-course restaurant. Carmelo Patti began his aged-wine project in 1986 and released his first own-label wine in 1989: a Cabernet Sauvignon with a production run of just 8,000 bottles. Since then, he has maintained a philosophy that runs counter to the mainstream: producing on a small scale, working with grapes from Perdriel and giving the wine all the time it needs before releasing it to the market.

The visit retains that same artisanal spirit. Guests tour the spaces where the family works and taste some of its reds: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Gran Assemblage. It’s a straightforward experience without much staging, and that’s precisely its charm: Carmelo still takes part in the visits alongside his family, something recent travelers continue to highlight. The tasting currently lasts around an hour, is free of charge and requires advance booking.

The inside scoop: Carmelo has a particular obsession with time. His wines are aged in French oak and then spend years in the bottle before being released, reflecting his belief that they should reach consumers only when he considers them ready to drink.

Where: San Martín 2614, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza.

At Finca Bandini, the experience begins long before you sit down for a tasting. The project grew out of the symbolic homecoming of Federico Bandini, a Mendoza native who moved to Houston as a child and dreamed of owning an estate in his home province. In 2017, he acquired 77 hectares in Las Compuertas, Luján de Cuyo, where he found more than just vineyards: the remains of old hydraulic structures connected to Mendoza’s history of water management. In 2023, the project reached a new milestone with the construction of its own winery, designed by the Bórmida–Yanzón architecture studio.

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Around 25 minutes from Mendoza City, the visit takes you through the vineyards and these historic corners before moving on to tastings at the House of Wines. There are several ways to explore the estate: by golf cart, bicycle or even on horseback. You can also add a Mendoza-style lunch among the vines or try more playful experiences, such as the Blending Game, where each visitor creates their own blend and takes home a bottle. Everything unfolds on a much more intimate scale than at the major wine tourism complexes.

The inside scoop: among the vineyards, walls, channels and the remains of enormous floodgates built in 1922 to manage water from the Mendoza River have survived. They have been preserved and restored, offering a little lesson in Mendoza history hidden within a winery.

Where: Callejón Peralta, Las Compuertas, Mendoza.

In Villa Seca, Tunuyán, Bodega Familia Zaina revives a family history spanning more than a century of winemaking in the Uco Valley. After selling their former winery in the 1990s, a new generation decided to return to winemaking in 2013, this time on a deliberately small scale. A year later, Serie Tarot was born: a collection of limited-production wines inspired by the Major Arcana, whose labels don’t necessarily return from one vintage to the next.

The visit reflects that same intimate scale. Since 2017, the family has welcomed travelers to Espacio Los Enamorados, on its estate, where tastings offer an up-close look at the project and a chance to try wines that are unlikely to become mass-market labels. Production runs for Serie Tarot can range from just 300 to 3,000 bottles. It’s the kind of experience where the story behind what’s in your glass matters as much as the wine itself, and where you can still feel more like a guest in a family home than a visitor to a large wine tourism complex. Visits require advance booking.

The inside scoop: here, Tarot is more than just a clever label. Between one and three new cards—and wines—are introduced each year, and many are never made again in subsequent vintages, turning some bottles in the collection into small collector’s items among its fans.

Where: Los Volcanes, Tunuyán, Mendoza.

In Mayor Drummond, away from the busiest wine tourism circuits, Moor Barrio occupies just 15 square meters. The project was founded by winemakers and partners Teresita Barrio and Cristian Moor in what was originally a storage room at Teresita’s parents’ house. It eventually became what they call a “bonsai winery”: a miniature winery that replicates the processes of a much larger operation, but on such a small scale that practically everything can be handled by hand.

The philosophy is to produce little and maintain close control over every detail. Their reds total just 1,000 to 1,200 bottles a year, with grapes currently sourced from Los Chacayes. Even the equipment has been adapted to the scale of the operation, with 100-liter barrels and small stainless-steel tanks. Every bottle of Initium, their sole wine range, is individually numbered, linked to a numbered box and hand-signed by its creators. The labels, designed by Mendoza artist Fernando Jereb, reinforce the feeling that each bottle is a piece that may never be reproduced in quite the same way.

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The inside scoop: a single barrel can account for up to 25% of the winery’s entire annual production. Their commitment to quality goes even further: if a vintage fails to meet their standards, they may simply decide not to make wine that year.

Where: Terrada 2702, Mayor Drummond, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza.

Just eight blocks from the main square in Godoy Cruz, Casa Tano swaps endless vineyards for an old family home. The project by Cristian Santos and winemaker Lucas Richardi began more than a decade ago, almost as a hobby, making wine from the family’s grapevines using a blue olive barrel. Over time, they moved into Cristian’s grandparents’ old house, a typical Italian-style home where they still use the family’s original wine press. Today, they produce around 15,000 bottles a year.

A visit offers a much closer look at the winemaking process than a conventional tasting. Casa Tano offers experiences in which visitors can select grape clusters, take part in bottling or create their own blend by tasting different varietals blind. There’s also La Capagnina, their small bistro serving regional and Italian cuisine, and a calendar of events where wine meets music, gastronomy and art. Everything takes place inside an urban winery where barrels, amphorae and small machines coexist with the history of a neighborhood home.

The inside scoop: they started out making just one barrel to share among friends. Today, their wines are served at Buenos Aires restaurants such as Don Julio and Anchoíta, yet Casa Tano continues to produce small batches and keep the old family press in working order.

Where: Perito Moreno 1221, Godoy Cruz, Mendoza.

In Los Sauces, Tunuyán, Pielihueso represents a less formal side of the Uco Valley. The project by Celina Bartolomé focuses on organic farming and low-intervention wines, allowing the grapes and the place they come from to express themselves with as little artifice as possible. That philosophy extends to the visitor experience: rather than an elaborate wine tourism production, the idea is to get closer to wine through a small, laid-back project deeply connected to the land.

And since 2026, there’s another reason to visit. The estate is home to La Amistad, the restaurant that Pielihueso created with Micaela Najmanovich and Nicolás Arcucci, the founders of Anafe in Buenos Aires. The same informality carries through to the table: dishes designed for sharing, cooking driven by seasonal ingredients, open views of the vineyards and the Andes, and, of course, the winery’s own wines. For those who want to sample several, there are three-glass flights, and the experience can be rounded off with a winery tour.

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The inside scoop: when the winery made its first orange wine in 2017, the category barely existed in Argentina, and the National Institute of Viticulture (INV) did not allow “orange wine” to be used as a designation. The solution was to register “Naranjo” as the wine’s legal name, allowing the word to appear on the label. Almost by chance, the family ended up securing the registration of a term that would become part of a rapidly growing wine category just a few years later.

Where: Los Sauces, Tunuyán, Mendoza.

In the heart of Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo, Bodega Caelum is a family-run project founded in 2009, after more than a decade spent working the land and growing grapes. Production remains relatively small: the winery reports an annual output of around 70,000 bottles, using only grapes grown on its own estate. Even its name offers a glimpse into the project’s philosophy: Caelum is a small constellation visible from the Southern Hemisphere that represents a chisel, a metaphor for the craftsmanship behind every wine.

But there’s something that makes a visit stand out from the usual winery itinerary: pistachio trees grow among the vines. The experience includes a tour of the estate and the small winery, followed by a tasting of wines and sparkling wines alongside pistachios grown right there. Recent visitors continue to highlight the relaxed, personalized nature of the tastings, which require advance booking.

The inside scoop: the family also runs Pistachos de Altura, its own pistachio-growing operation spanning more than 23 hectares of crops. The nuts are processed by hand and carefully roasted to preserve their flavor and texture.

Where: RN7, Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza.

Just a few minutes from the main square in Chacras de Coria, L’Orange invites visitors into the world that Johana Foster and Ernesto Catena have built around a simple idea: Wine is Art. It’s a small, artisanal winery specializing in natural and biodynamic wines, made with minimal intervention from organic and biodynamic grapes, with experiments that include fermentation in amphorae. Far from the grand aesthetic of the major wineries of Luján de Cuyo, everything here unfolds on a much more intimate scale, among trees, a vegetable garden, art and wine.

The visit also breaks away from the traditional tasting format. You can explore the garden, harvest seasonal vegetables and step inside the small winery to learn firsthand how the wines are made before sitting down to eat. The food experience revolves around Che Wine, a tiny dining room featuring live-fire cooking, clay ovens and ingredients that reflect the project’s philosophy. Some experiences end with wine and a selection of snacks, while others include a more substantial lunch. All visits require advance booking.

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The inside scoop: biodynamics here goes far beyond a word on the label. The garden brings together beehives, vegetables and other crops within the same ecosystem, while the vineyards associated with the project use cover crops and regenerative farming practices.

Where: Alem 5170, Chacras de Coria, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza.

In Cruz de Piedra, Maipú, Finca La Cayetana offers a very different experience from that of a conventional winery. The visit revolves around a historic manor house rebuilt in 1865, following the devastating earthquake that destroyed much of Mendoza four years earlier. Today, this heritage site is home to a small-scale winemaking project associated with Emilia Armando and Eduardo Soler, the creators of Ver Sacrum. Their focus is on reviving grape varieties, techniques and winemaking traditions that stray from the province’s more predictable paths.

The visit offers an accessible way into this world: explore the property, learn about its history and discover wines made from varieties such as Pedro Ximénez, Criolla Blanca, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, alongside techniques that include amphora aging, whole-cluster fermentation and biological aging. Art, objects, family documents and gastronomy round out an experience in which the house is almost as much of a star as the bottles themselves.

The inside scoop: if these walls could talk, they’d have quite a few stories to tell. Figures such as Julio Argentino Roca and Eugenio Pacelli passed through La Cayetana. Pacelli would later become Pope Pius XII. More than 150 years later, the old manor still stands, offering visitors the chance to raise a glass inside a living chapter of Mendoza’s history.

Where: Manuel Cruz Videla 2605, Maipú, Mendoza.

In the highest part of Gualtallary, Michelini i Mufatto offers something that’s hard to replicate: the winery, vineyard and family home are practically one and the same. Here, at La Cautiva, at an altitude of around 1,600 meters, winemakers Gerardo Michelini, Andrea Mufatto and their son Manuel Michelini live and work. The family project began in 2015 and now works with a vineyard of just 5.5 hectares, divided into small parcels according to their soils. The goal is to produce wines that express this remote corner of the Uco Valley with as little interference as possible.

The best way to step into this world is through Trinchera, Michelini i Mufatto’s dining experience, which takes place on the estate itself. Andrea handles the cooking, while Gerardo looks after the dining room and the wines, creating an experience that feels much more like being welcomed into someone’s home than visiting a conventional winery restaurant. Local ingredients, home-style dishes and a cellar housing thousands of bottles accompany Michelini i Mufatto’s wines in the very landscape where they are born. The experience requires advance booking.

The inside scoop: here, it’s fair to say that they sleep alongside their wines. La Cautiva is more than just the estate and winery of Michelini i Mufatto; it’s also the family’s home. Living so closely alongside the vineyard may help explain why they work each parcel with such meticulous attention. Their philosophy has earned international recognition: Tim Atkin named Gerardo Michelini and Andrea Mufatto Winemakers of the Year in his 2024 Argentina Special Report.

Where: Gualtallary Silva, La Estancia s/n, Mendoza.