Architects Gonzalez Pondal Malenchini's design for Cavas Wine Lodge comprises futuristic adobe bungalows set amongst a fourteen hectare vineyard.
Ashort flight from the country's capital Buenos Aires is Mendoza, a lovely 19th century city with wide street sand open squares. As the fourth largest wine-producing region in the world the city is the ideal launch pad from which to explore prime wine country, and some vineyards at the vanguard of the wine tourism wave are grasping the nettle (or rather the grape) with both hands and erecting some imposing and rather magnificent architectural masterpieces that add to their draw, notably the Salentein winery and Catena Zapata.
On a much less grand scale, the Cavas Wine Lodge, which opened in September 2005, is a very cool and contemporary lodge just twenty minutes away from Mendoza run by handsome husband and wife team Martin Rigal and Cecilia Diaz Chuit.
It looks like something out of a Star Wars movie. They commissioned Buenos Aires architects Gonzalez Pondal Malenchini to build fourteen futuristic adobe bungalows nestling amongst the surrounding 14 hectare vineyard with views on the horizon of the snow capped Andes. This all makes for a truly unique spot, but it's the cutting edge design of the apartments positioned among the vines that steal the show.
Inside, a sitting room, discreetly equipped with flat-screen TV, CD/DVD player, cordless phone and Wi-Fi, leads to a bedroom of cool cream with blood-red llama-wool throws on the bed; beyond, a stone-clad bathroom has twin basins, a stand-alone bath and separate shower. The focus on getting out and clambering on and around your adobe dwelling, as much as marveling at the interior, is fundamental to its charm.
Each apartment is around 1000 ft2 and opens onto its own Andes-facing patio with plunge pool. Rustic, bear-yourself-to-the-elements touches include an outdoor shower (you are protected from view so you can shower as nature intended if you feel fearless), and a roof terrace with chill out mattress where at night you can gaze up to the starry sky with a log fire crackling away after dinner. It's the sort of finca the Flintstones would have been happy to live in - after they'd won the dino-lottery perhaps.
The main house remains faithful to the Spanish colonial style with a sunlit sitting room that leads out onto the main pool. There's an underground cellar stacked with some of Argentina's best wine. Leading down to the cellar by a series of gigantic temple like steps you almost feel like you are walking into an amphitheatre. And this design feature is no mistake, because wine is the scene stealer in these parts. As is the food, of course. Chef Sebastian Flores has created a traditional Argentinean menu to complement the excellent wine while locally produced olive oils, herbs and spices are all used in the kitchen.
