Vino de Cafayate

 Wine tasting in South America is interestingly different. Some bodegas are open and welcome visitors and others seem to make it difficult to get tasting. Many have websites on facebook or instagram but no real information about tasting and visits. We, we did the best we could.

We stopped at a winery in the middle of nowhere on our way to Cafayate called Milla7. It has a restaurant so we decided to have lunch and taste. The food is excellent and the wine is pretty good as well, considering the look of the terrain (barren).


We stayed a very nice little hotel right in Cafayate, Portal de Santo. The staff was very accommodating and the breakfast was good. Our room overlooked the pool and gardens.


Cafayate is a nice little town that it is easy to walk around. Relaxed and friendly. The square is busy each night but not until after 9. There are a few bodegas right in town. Oddly enough we didn’t taste at any of them but we did have their wine with some meals. We did drive west to a couple in the mountains. Interesting driving. You take the national route (paved) then turn off onto gravel or worse. We went to Bodega San Pedro de Yakochuya first. They are at an elevation of 6560 feet. We joined an already existing tour/tasting.The reds are delicious and complex. Very dark and full bodied. In my opinion better than Mendoza. The system is a little different. They put the best grapes in oak for 12 to 18 months but the regular stuff go straight to bottles. Their tasting room had a dispenser that used argon gas to displace the wine. You can taste all you want at about $2.00 for 2.5 ounces for most wines. We didn’t taste the $26.00 one.



Next we tried for Bodega Domingo Melina. It was recommended but we couldn’t get there through the stream that crossed the driveway. Rental car, don’t need any stress. We headed for Bodega Piatelli just down the road. It’s a big one. We had lunch and thought we would take the 4 PM tour only to find out that they tasted mostly their Mendoza product. We cancelled and told them how disappointed we were. The tour leader took pity on us and let us taste the 3 Cafayate reds that they had. They were quite good but not as nice as the first place.



The drive to Cafayate has to be mentioned. It is amazing, you turn a corner and new colours and landscapes appear. There is a lot to see and it becomes obvious why a couple hundred kms takes 3+ hours. Lots of things to stop and see.




Oh, and I almost forgot the wildlife!










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