A Beautiful Oasis of Vines
The Chanarmuyo winery hotel is the perfect place on the route from Salta to Mendoza to relax, visit the winery and drink excellent wine. The valleys in this region are stunning, located on the lower slopes of the Andes range.
This is a high altitude, semi-desert environment but very fertile in certain places where meltwater feeds rivers and lakes, but there is very little actual rain. Until the start of this century, nobody thought that the valley in question would be suitable for wine. Jorge Chamas thought differently and planted his first vines in 2001.
The Chañarmuyo Winery is blessed with a large swathe of vineyards as you can see in the video below, some 90 hectares are now planted with around 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Malbec plus varying quantities of Chardonnay, Viognier, Tannat, Cabernet Franc and some other varieties in very small measure to give the winemaker greater blending flexibility. The bodega currently produces 250,000 bottles but they have installed the infrastructure to produce up to one million bottles, and that is the plan within 5 years.
Huge investment has not just been made in the winery and vineyards but also in the lovely on-site hotel. This is our go-to place to stay in La Rioja en-route to Mendoza. The scenery is wonderful in any direction you look from the winery and you can wander the vineyards and the small village nearby, plus there is a dam-formed lake just around the corner.
The hotel is very well-appointed with comfortable, well-equipped rooms plus some great common areas. You cannot really appreciate it from the aerial footage of the boring looking roof but the interiors are lovingly decorated and the designers obviously had a great eye for detail. The corridors for the rooms are surrounded and covered by vines which enhances the ambiance and provides welcome shade from the blazing sun.
There is a library & lounge area which we love. Huge coffee table books on wine and Argentina abound, and you could install yourself there with a glass of excellent wine and really relax. You can see in the video that there are pool and garden areas, a nice bonus with the massive amounts of sunshine the area gets. This hotel could be used to explore a range of remote vineyards that would certainly not be easy should you choose to stay in larger towns or cities in this part of Argentina.
We also love the outdoor areas at this hotel, apart from the pool area there are a couple of outdoor dining areas where you could enjoy a traditional Argentine Asado, plus there is a vineyard-facing terrace, perfect for a glass of the Chanarmuyo winery plonk while watching the sunset over the mountains.
If you choose to do the road trip from Salta to Mendoza with us (or vice versa) this is a must-stay location when you pass through La Rioja, ask us to fit this winery and hotel into your schedule.
