Francis Mallman is a well-known figure in both Argentina and Uruguay. He is a chef, the owner of several restaurants, and the person who gets most of the credit for making Uruguay’s Jose Ignacio beach area the hip and happening place for celebrities and international playboys (and girls). We’ve just posted a review of his small inn in a small town: Hotel el Garzon.

In Luxury Latin America, we try to go beyond the big splashy places, which can often be impersonal and uninspiring. Hotel El Garzon is a great example of a gem where you can expect great service, interesting furnishings that don’t come from a hotel catalog, and cuisine served with a flourish.With a winery nearby supplying el vino, you’ll surely drink something new and interesting as well. Check out the full review.

We are continually adding hotels to places we haven’t gotten to yet (Acapulco and Zihuatanejo coming soon), but we also add to places we have covered when one of our contributors gets wind of a fantastic place we’ve missed. That’s the case with Colemé Estancia and Bodega, an Argentine hotel that manages to deliver a luxury experience despite its remote location far from the nearest cities, Salta and Cafayate.

The lovely photo above, from the reviewer Claire Edrich, sums up the appeal of this estancia, where rugged landscapes mix with well-honed aesthetics and fine food. Colomé has a claim to fame as well: the oldest working winery in Argentina. The bodega is also purported to be the highest in the world, though with vineyards popping up nearly everywhere these days, who knows how long that will last.

Just figure on some serious transit time to get here before you get to swim in the pool, settle into one of nine rooms, and enjoy organic food with a variety of local wine.

Driving to Colomé takes about five hours from Salta City or slightly less from Cafayate. Although roads are quite rough in places they’re also rewarding and lead through some of the most beautiful scenery Argentina has to offer. This includes an accessible canyon, shady amphitheater with excellent acoustics, a Cactus Park, frontier–type villages, a barren desert, and opulently fertile oases. If you are unwilling or unable to travel by car you can arrange direct transfer by private plane or helicopter.

If you go for the latter options, however, you will miss out on some fantastic scenery. I haven’t been to this particular hotel, but I have been to the canyon area between Salta and Cafayate and the landscape remains one of my most vivid memories of Argentina.

See the other top luxury hotels in Argentina.

Last Friday the Wall Street Journal’s wine reviewers did a blind tasting of 60 Malbecs and were quite pleased with the overall results. More on that in a moment, but what was interesting to me is how wine from Argentina has zoomed so far ahead of what’s coming out of Chile in terms of sales. Higher sales doesn’t mean better wine of course–as Australia’s bursting bubble is proving–but it is a sign that people are generally happy with what they’re getting when they see “Made in Argentina” on the label.

The Journal says, “In the first four months of this year, the U.S. imported almost 50 percent more wine from Argentina than Chile. This represents a big change: as recently as 2000, Chile exported almost five times as much wine to the U.S. as Argentina did.”

This is mostly due to the rise of Malbec. The writers (John Brecher and Dorothy J. Gaiter) tasted 60 of them off U.S. shelves and their top 8 picks ranged in price from $6.99 to $41.99. Great values all around. The best of tasting was a Felipe Rutini 2004, which retails for $17.99. The best value was Nieto Senetiner “Reserva” 2004, which I’m happy to report I got to taste in person at their beautiful vineyard when I was in Mendoza (the two photos here). They make some great high-end wines, but this particular one is a fantastic bargain at $6.99.

Click on the Wine.com banner to the right to order a stash of wine from Argentina. Or visit your local store and grab a few random bottles. There’s a good chance you’ll be pleased with the results, without gambling a lot of cash.

Mexico is still not very known for its wine industry, but it has been putting out some respectable wines in the hilly region of the northern Baja Peninsula. A new venture between Singapore’s Banyan Tree group and the Monte Xanic winery will bring a new upscale wine resort to the Valle de Guadalupe region.

“The region is a two-hour scenic drive from San Diego, USA. Measuring seven hectares, the resort will be set on prime hillside land affording breathtaking views of the entire property and valley site. At 396 metres above sea level and 16 kilometres from the Pacific Coast, the region boasts of the ideal Mediterranean climate. The resort is expected to feature some 40 luxurious pool villas.”

Follow this link for the full Banyan Tree Mexico press release.

The Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher just devoted a column to every day Chardonnay from Argentina and Chile, declaring the batch overall to be far superior to the oaky, industrial stuff on the shelves from Australia and elsewhere. (Link here, but available to WSJ subscribers only.)

This tasting was meant to cover wines you’d buy by the case and always have in the fridge for summer, so all retail for under $20. Overall, “the restraint and lightness of these wines was more pleasing and made them far easier to drink than the ponderous Charadonnays we’ve tasted too often lately.” None of them blew the reviewers away, but overall they were declared a good value. Here were the top choices from a blind tasting:

Montes Alpha 2005 (Casblanca Valley from Chile - Best of tasting, $16.99

Falling Star 2004 (Cuyo) from Argentina - Best value, $4.99

Walnut Crest 2006 (Central Valley) from Chile - Best value, $4.99

If you’re looking for something reliable that’s easy to find anywhere, Chilean ones with Concha y Toro on the label are a good bet–they were two of the other favorites from the tasting. Others included La Playa and Valdivieso from Chile and Navarro Correas from Argentina.