One thing magazine editors love to do is highlight some concept that’s been around for years and act like it’s a new trend they just discovered. Thus this May article in National Geographic Traveler about wine lodges in Mendoza, Argentina: Bodegas Open Their Doors.

After years of studying Spanish, I have found this word “bodega” to mean a lot of different things. When I lived in New York City, it meant a little corner food store run by Cubans or Puerto Ricans. In Colombia it’s a pantry. In other countries it’s a bar. The original meaning has something to do with storing barrels in a cellar though, so in Argentina this has led to the word being applied to most any winery. (Not a “guesthouse” as that article says.)

So this article is about places around Mendoza’s wine regions where you can stay at the winery itself, or at least among the vines growing outside. Readers of Luxury Latin America know this is nothing new as we’ve featured detailed reviews of the two best wine lodges for years: Cavas Wine Lodge and Club Tapiz (the latter pictured here). Both can give you the opportunity to be smack up against the grape vines and you can set up wine tasting tours, pruning workshops, winery tours, or grape picking depending on the time of year.

We also have details on another one with only two rooms in this Boutique Hotels of Argentina story.

Whichever place you choose, you will have great views of the Andes range, you’ll eat well, and you’ll drink well. In the ones we highlight, you’ll get plenty of pampering as well and at Cavas Wine Lodge you can get all kinds of vinotherapy treatments—if soaking in wine and getting scrubbed with grape seeds is your kind of thing…

The Colomé Estancia Hotel, in an isolated location four hours from Salta or Cafayate, seems an unlikely place to house a notable museum dedicated to one artist. But the James Turrell Museum there is the real deal, built at the whim of the Swiss owner and vintner Donald Hess.

Last year, the dedicated art collector opened a dedicated 18,000-square-feet building devoted to the California artist’s works, known for their interplay of light and space, in a spectacular setting—mountains in the distance, surrounded by a vineyard. Some of the installations integrate the clear desert sky.

If you’re going to make the trek all the way out to Colomé Estancia, you will be rewarded: admission to the museum is free. But here at Argentina’s oldest winery, in a hotel that’s surprisingly plush for something so far from cities and supply routes, you’ll want to stick around for a while and take it all in.

You can see a slideshow of seven images from the museum at Wallpaper magazine’s site.

Last year I interviewed one of our business partners, Jamie Schectman, about renting a house in the Bariloche region of Patagonia. Jamie and his wife are American, but for the past few years they’ve been watching some of the world’s most incredible sunrises and sunsets over the Andes Mountains from their home beside the lake.

A new business opportunity is calling them from the bottom of the Earth to the top and they are making plans to return to Alaska. They are putting their amazing property up for sale and if my life situation were different I’d be tempted to buy it myself. Listed at $379,000 it includes land, three separate homes, and priceless views.

“Located in the exclusive Llao Llao neighborhood, outside of Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina, this impressive property includes three houses. All enjoy their own amazing vistas of Lake Nahuel Huapi, Victoria Island, the Andean Crest and Chile, as well as individual privacy, private parking, and fenced landscaping with native trees and wildflowers.”

The two additional houses generated $21,000 of income last year through Bariloche Vacation Rentals. If you didn’t live there full time you could rent out the main house as well.

See the full scoop, with lots of photos, at this Patagonia View investment property page. There’s clear title, minimal closing costs, rental permits in place, and few hassles to purchasing here. To see what life has been like in this spot for the couple, see the Living in Patagonia blog.

Just two months after instituting a reciprocal visa fee for tourists to Argentina (meaning an extra $131 per person for Americans), the government of Argentina seems to be determined to rankle as many people as possible.

The latest is “the biggest inflation surge to start the year in two decades,” according to the Wall Street Journal, as Argentina Confronts Soaring Inflation. The worst part of this, for locals and tourists alike, is a 25% rise in beef prices. Chronic overspending is to blame, which has led to a big soap opera of the former head of the central bank being fired for not handing the government the bank’s foreign reserves to spend, his refusing to step down, then his being forced to step down when he was barred from his office. Kirchner’s yes-woman replacement is not sitting well with economists or the business leaders.

Bad government policies are mostly blamed for the beef inflation since price controls and export bans have led to a reduction in cattle, from 61 million in 2007 to 50 million today.

Good news for us is, the peso has dropped against the dollar to a nearly 4-to-1 ratio from around 3-to-1 in years past. So prices are rising, but so is the value of the dollar or euro for those coming in from elsewhere.

Your cruise stop in the Falkland Islands may cost extra though. Argentina is trying to force ships to get permission from Buenos Aires to pass through Argentine waters to get there. This move has gotten the support of Hugo Chavez, which tells you how well it’s going to play out with more sane leaders…

Keep an eye on international news if you’re planning a trip to Argentina. Hopefully an international recovery—or new elections—will right the ship before things get ugly.

[photo from Living in Patagonia blog]

When we can, we try to tap into travel writers who are living abroad and can give us the inside scoop. Often these writers, such as guidebook author and Buenos Aires resident Bridget Gleeson, have the connections and the eavesdropping ability to figure out which hotels aren’t on the international radar—but should be.

Take the Tigre Delta weekend escape La Becasina. You probably won’t read about this in any “hot list” or “top 10 hotels in…” article in a magazine for another year or two, but our eyes on the ground tell us this is a place worth checking into when you want to get out of Buenos Aires, but not too far out.

“La Becasina is the very picture of sophistication—attracting mostly couples to its 15 private cabins—with an expert barman and waitstaff that serve multiple courses to guests seated at intimate tables for two. It’s all about leisure and luxury here, so you don’t have to worry about checking out of your room after breakfast: most guests spend the whole weekend at the lodge, checking in on Saturday morning and staying through early evening on Sunday.”

This is a place where you check your worries at the door, a nature escape not far from the big city. See our full review of Becasina Delta Lodge.

Other top hotels in Argentina