Uco Valley - High-altitude new frontier

Argentina's most exciting wine frontier, where vineyards climb to 1,500m with glacier-fed rivers and snow-capped Andean peaks as backdrop. Zuccardi Valle de Uco offers award-winning architecture, world-class restaurant, and wines that express this dramatic high-altitude terroir.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand at Cristo Rey and Count the Volcanoes Adventure · Free

   At 1,428 metres, a 28-metre Christ statue marks the best free panorama in all of Mendoza. Below you: 29,000 hectares of vineyards threading between Andean peaks. To the west: Cerro Tupungato, a semi-active 6,570-metre volcano whose tectonic force — 50 million years ago — shoved the Pacific Ocean floor two kilometres into the sky. That calcium-white soil you can see glinting in the afternoon light? Marine fossils and chalk. The wine you'll taste later grew in ancient seabed.

   Where: Cristo Rey del Valle, near Los Cerrillos village, Tupungato — turn west off Ruta Provincial 86 onto the Cerrillos road. The statue is visible from the road at approximately -33.38, -69.20. Signposted 'Cristo Rey del Valle'.

   What: A 28-metre Christ statue opened 2005, perched at 1,428 metres with a full 180-degree panorama of the Uco Valley. Directly west is Tupungato volcano (6,570m) — one of Argentina's highest peaks and the geological engine that created this entire wine valley. The seabed it pushed skyward is the chalk-rich soil growing the world's most celebrated Malbec 500 metres below you.

   How: Free and open at all times. Walk up the short path from the road. Allow 20–30 minutes. Come in the late afternoon for raking golden light on the Andes. If driving from Mendoza city (~86km south on Ruta 40), stop here before heading to any winery — the overview primes you for everything that follows.

   Backup: If the road to Cerrillos is closed (rare, due to weather), the view from the Zuccardi winery terrace itself offers the same Tupungato panorama from vineyard level — arguably more dramatic for being right inside it.

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2. 2 Touch the Acequia That Has Been Watering Vines Since Before Columbus History · Free

   The Huarpe people arrived here around 300 CE and built irrigation canals — acequias — to channel snowmelt from the Andes across this desert valley. The Spanish arrived in 1561, found the canals still running, and immediately began planting wine grapes. Those same canal designs water Mendoza's vineyards and streets TODAY. Every wine you'll taste in the Uco Valley grew because 1,700-year-old indigenous engineering made it possible.

   Where: The acequias run alongside roads throughout Tupungato town (plaza area: -33.3728, -69.1475). The most visible sections are along Calle Belgrano, Tupungato's main avenue, and along rural roads between wineries.

   What: These open stone-lined water channels are the direct descendants of the Huarpe irrigation network. The Huarpe were agrarian people who grew corn, beans, squash and quinoa in this arid valley from the 5th century onward. The canals they engineered funnelled glacier-fed Andes water across flat, infertile land. When the Spanish arrived with Malbec cuttings 200 years later, they used the Huarpe template to make it all possible.

   How: Walk the plaza and Belgrano avenue in Tupungato town — free, takes 15–20 minutes. You'll see the acequias running alongside the footpaths. Stop at a café on Belgrano for a cortado and watch the water still flowing. Then drive south on Ruta 40 toward the wineries: the canal network runs alongside the road all the way to San Carlos.

   Backup: SAK Wine & Travel offers a dedicated Huarpe community tour (book ahead) where you walk with a Huarpe guide who explains the irrigation system, ancestral foods, and cultural history — the deepest version of this story if you want the full layer.

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3. 3 Taste the Wine That Won the World Four Times in a Row Wine · Price: moderate

   Zuccardi Valle de Uco was named the World's Best Vineyard four consecutive years — 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. In 2022 they became the only winery in Argentina to score three perfect 100-point Parker wines in a single vintage. The winery itself, built from local stone in 2016, is barely distinguishable from the Andean escarpment it sits against. In the vineyard behind it — 52 hectares called Piedra Infinita — they dug 180 soil pits and found 40 different soil types. You'll taste two of them side by side.

   Where: Bodega Zuccardi Valle de Uco, Costa Canal Uco s/n, Paraje Altamira, San Carlos, Mendoza. Coordinates: -33.7723, -69.1547. About 130km south of Mendoza city.

   What: The Terroir tasting (~$45 USD, includes cellar tour) is the one to book. You'll taste wines from specific soil parcels within Finca Piedra Infinita — plots with names like 'Supercal' (pure calcium carbonate at 30cm depth) and 'Gravascal' (gravel + limestone at 40cm). These are 10cm apart in depth yet taste distinctly different — that's how hyper-expressive this terroir is. Nine of these wines have received perfect 100-point scores.

   How: Tours daily at 9:30, 11:00, 12:30, 15:00. ESSENTIAL: Book at zuccardiwines.com/en/turismo/ at least 4 weeks ahead (they fill fast). Tastings range from $20 (Polígonos entry) to $62 (Fincas — top parcels). Basic tour alone ~$10. Phone: +54 261 441-0000.

   Backup: If fully booked, Salentein winery (Ruta 89 s/n, Km 14, Tunuyán — -33.4961, -69.2518) offers comparably spectacular Malbec at 1,000m elevation with a bonus: the Killka Gallery, one of Argentina's finest contemporary art collections, is on the same property.

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4. 4 Taste the Vineyard His Own Manager Said Would Never Ripen Wine · Price: high

   In 1993, Nicolás Catena decided to plant Malbec at 1,450 metres in Gualtallary — a place nobody had dared farm. His own vineyard manager told him the grapes would never ripen: too cold, too high. He planted anyway and named the vineyard after his youngest daughter, Adrianna. The first harvest changed his life. Today, the Adrianna Vineyard is called 'the Grand Cru of South America' and produces some of the most sought-after wines on earth — multiple 100-point scores, and wines that smell nothing like any other Malbec.

   Where: Bodega Catena Zapata, Cobos s/n, Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza. Coordinates: -33.1182, -68.8855. (Note: this is the bodega pyramid. The Adrianna Vineyard itself, in Gualtallary, is not open to the public — you taste its wines here.)

   What: Book the 'Adrianna Grand Cru' visit ($150 USD/person) — Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:30. This is 4 parcel wines from Adrianna Vineyard with guided barrel tasting + regional tapas. The bodega itself is spectacular: a Mayan pyramid designed by architect Pablo Sánchez Elía in the late 1990s. Ask the guide to tell you the vineyard manager story — the one about being told it would never ripen.

   How: Email turismo@catenazapata.com or call +54 261 413-1124. Book weeks ahead. The standard 'Renaissance of Malbec' tour ($100/person) runs Mon–Fri 11:00 and 15:00, Sat 11:00 — includes 4 high-end wines with cheese and charcuterie. Basic tours run from $30/person.

   Backup: Clos de los Siete (Vista Flores, Tunuyán — Michel Rolland's 850-hectare project with 4 Bordeaux-family wineries) offers a very different but equally compelling story about what France did when it found this valley. DiamAndes within the estate offers English tours at 10am.

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5. 5 Sit Down to 9 Courses at the World's Best Vineyard Wine · Price: very high · Optional

   Piedra Infinita Cocina is listed in the Michelin Guide and seats just 50 people inside the very winery that won World's Best four years running. The menu changes monthly and champions what grows within 30 kilometres: Tunuyán trout, valley apples, Pepato cheese, clay-oven tortita mendocina. Each course pairs with a different Zuccardi wine — including bottles that retail for hundreds of dollars. This is not a restaurant that happens to have good wine. This is a wine estate that happens to have extraordinary food.

   Where: Piedra Infinita Cocina, inside Bodega Zuccardi Valle de Uco, Costa Canal Uco s/n, Paraje Altamira, San Carlos. Coordinates: -33.7723, -69.1547. Same location as the tasting room.

   What: A 9-course tasting menu with full wine pairing, showcasing seasonal local produce — beetroot, Tunuyán trout, apple crumble, artisanal cheeses — paired with Zuccardi's Polígonos and Finca-level wines (the same ones that have earned 100-point Parker scores). The room is raw stone and glass — architecturally inseparable from the vineyard outside.

   How: Lunch daily 12:30–14:00. Dinner Thursday–Saturday 20:00. Pricing approximately $60–186 USD per person depending on wine pairing tier (prices subject to change). CRITICAL: Reserve as far ahead as possible — the restaurant sells out months in advance. Contact: +54 261 441-0000 or via zuccardiwines.com/en/turismo/. Combine this with the morning Terroir tasting (Step 3) for a full day at the estate.

   Backup: If Piedra Infinita is fully booked (likely), Killka Restaurant at Salentein (-33.4961, -69.2518) offers a seasonal menu with Andes panorama and a 49-hectare nature preserve to walk before lunch. Less celebrated, but more accessible and genuinely excellent.

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Insider tips

• Start at Zuccardi Valle de Uco for award-winning architecture and restaurant

• Schedule visits to Gualtallary sub-region for the most extreme altitude wines

• Allow extra time - distances between wineries are greater than expected