Mendoza, Argentina

🇦🇷 Mendoza, officially the City of Mendoza is the capital of the province of Mendoza in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes.

Wine industry Argentina's Malbec wines originate from Mendoza's high-altitude wine regions of Lujan de Cuyo and the Uco Valley. These districts are located in the foothills of the Andes mountains between 2,800 and 5,000 feet elevation. Vintner Nicolas Catena Zapata is considered the pioneer of high-altitude growing and was the first, in 1994, to plant a malbec vineyard at 5,000 feet above sea level in the Mendoza region. His family is also credited with making world-class wines and giving status to the wines of Argentina.

The subject of elevation is of much interest to the wine world because with increased altitude, the intensity of the sunlight increases. The role of this increased light intensity is currently being investigated by Catena Zapata's research and development department headed up by Laura Catena, Alejandro Vigil and Fernando Buscema.

Transportation Mendoza is 1,037 km (644 mi) from Buenos Aires (14 hours by bus) and 380 km (236 mi) from Santiago, Chile (6–7 hours by bus). Gov. Francisco Gabrielli International Airport serves Mendoza, with flights to/from Buenos Aires taking less than 2 hours and less than 1 hour to/from Santiago.

The public transport system includes buses, the Mendoza trolleybus system, and taxis. The trolleybuses are more comfortable than the diesel buses, but are slower, not as numerous nor is the system as extensive. In 2008, TransLink of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sold most of its old trolleybus fleet to Mendoza.

A heritage railway, El Tren del Vino (The Wine Train), is being planned which will also provide local transportation; it will run through wine-producing districts of Mendoza.

Metrotranvía A 17-kilometre (11 mi) light rail line, the Metrotranvía Mendoza, opened for regular service in October 2012. It serves the areas of Las Heras, Godoy Cruz and Maipú in the Greater Mendoza conurbation, as well as the central area of Mendoza itself. The line runs from Avellaneda station in the Panquehua neighborhood of Las Heras to Gutiérrez in Maipú, stopping also at the Mendoza Railway Station at the site of the former intercity passenger train station, near the city centre. The bright red railcars, Siemens-Duewag U2s, were purchased from the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) in 2010. They were built in 1980.