Seasons

Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia

When March The first days of March, every year, after months of departmental festivals that begin in January.

Typical duration 5 days

Book 4–6 months ahead

Groups & MICE Good for MICE

The week Mendoza closes the harvest, and the one week of the year when the wine region sells itself.

What it is

The Vendimia is the close of the harvest turned into a mass event: the blessing of the fruits, the election of the queen and the central spectacle in the amphitheatre of Parque General San Martín, with the city and the wineries turning around it for five days. Each department's own festival comes earlier and is smaller and more local — a good resource for a client who would rather avoid the crowds.

What to offer

Three to five nights in Mendoza with the wineries split by valley — Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley have different characters and should not be mixed in one day — and the central event as the closing act. It combines with Buenos Aires in the same week, and in March Patagonia is still open, so the programme takes a third leg that in January would be unaffordable.

How it operates

March is harvest: the wineries are working, which makes the visit more interesting and also more restricted, with tight schedules and limited group sizes. City hotels and boutique wineries commit for that week well before the rest of the autumn.

When to book

Four to six months ahead. That is comfortable next to Carnival or Réveillon, but the wineries with their own restaurant and the estate rooms are few and go first.

Groups & MICE

A good window for an incentive: there is a reason to travel, the estates have space for small groups and the weather cooperates. For a large urban congress, the core week competes for the same rooms.