December 20, 2021
We were rooting for France in the World Cup. They lost, but we’ve got no time for tears. We have to make good on a bet with some Argentines from a rival website. So, here’s a story about the best wine region on the planet: Mendoza.
Being founded by a Frenchman, and now owned by Michelin — a company that’s practically a national treasure in France — we were biased toward the French national team in last week’s World Cup final. Knowing this, a few travel industry friends from Argentina made a bet with us.
If Argentina won, we’d admit that Mendoza — not Bordeaux or Burgundy or Champagne — is the greatest wine region in the world, and we’d put together a list of its coolest hotels. Well, you know what happened next. We’d been optimistic. We had a celebratory story about French vineyard hotels all ready to go. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not for us, and not for Les Bleus.
Instead, it’s Argentina time. Specifically, Mendoza, the country’s acclaimed wine region. When you’ve won the biggest prize in sports, you might want to honor yourself with a little Malbec (the greatest wine in history), a little chimichurri asado steak (the greatest food in history), and a little scenery provided by the Andes (the greatest mountains in history). It all adds up to the greatest combination of things to have ever existed (apparently).
Gambling debts aside, few wine regions live up to the label better than Mendoza, and few of them have better hotels. We’d happily vouch for it even if we didn’t have to.
Merry Christmas, Messi.
