Posada Cavieres

We spent four days last weekend in Maipu, just outside the city of Mendoza. Our bed and breakfast was Posada Cavieres, a small three room affair located in the middle of Argentina's wine country and itself, a working wine farm or bodega.





The Posada Cavieres is fourteen hectares devoted  to vineyards and olive groves. It is about 20 km from Mendoza and is quiet, peaceful and relaxing. Our hosts were Hans Devloo (originally from Belgium), Alina Gomez Cavieres and Tommy. Hans and Alina, gracious and welcoming hosts, met while both were travelling in Chile. Tommy appeared out of nowhere one day and adopted them and the posada as his own.

The inn is an old converted farm building and rustic. The bed was probably the most comfortable we've found in Argentina. Rooms are not air conditioned, though there is a fan which we never used. The autumn weather provides hot days and cool nights so we slept with the windows and door open.

There's a well stocked minibar in a fridge in the common kitchen, with wine, soft drinks, bottled waters (both sin and con gas), and some nice litro bottles of local cervesa. The prices are reasonable and don't reflect minibar prices at all.

Breakfasts are a simple affair and feature homemade preserves and jams, some of which originate with fruits grown on the bodega.

Harvest is underway throughout much of Mendoza province. Trucks are transporting pickers to and from the fields and grapes too. Some vineyards are now harvested by machine, which certainly saves time and money, but most winemakers feel better wines are made from grapes picked by hand and early in the morning. Hans and Alina will begin their harvest sometime in the coming week.

Upon arrival we were presented with a bottle of Cavieres malbec from a previous harvest. The wine was good though might have been better decanted. It will only get better if left for a while, like a year or two, but who wants to wait.









Posada Cavieres is an incredibly relaxing place if you want it to be. A bit off the beaten track, in the middle of nowhere in some ways, and a delight all the same. Some nicer soaps and shampoos would be a welcome addition to the bathroom, and a wee variation in the daily breakfasts would be minor improvements I recommend, but the strength of the posada is in the hosts and the atmosphere they have created. Tommy is a delight too, and so is the always present view of the alta montana.

Highly recommended, you can visit the Posada Cavieres website here: www.caviereswines.com