No lie: when Huentala reached out to show me their tourism offering, I said yes before I even asked for the full details.
Not because I’m impulsive, and not because of their name. I said yes because I’ve known the family for years. I know how they work. I know how they operate when things get busy, when something goes wrong, when a guest needs an extra mile. In tourism, that’s not a small thing. It’s the whole game. You’re not selling a product—you’re investing in quality.
Funny enough, my first real job was at seventeen, and it was with Julio Camsen, long before wine was part of the picture. Back then, his world was tourism, and I was a kid learning the basics: show up, follow through, and take responsibility for the experience you’re putting in someone else’s hands. Years later, the same family was part of my professional world again—this time through hospitality and wine—only now the project had grown into something serious
.But we didn’t choose Huentala because of the story.
We choose it because of what it is: an amazing winery.
Gualtallary: Altitude With A Meaning
First, the place: Gualtallary, in the Uco Valley, one of the most extreme and expressive zones we explore on our wine tours. It’s not “Uco” in the generic sense. It’s higher, sharper, more extreme—the kind of zone where wines tend to come out with tension and personality. It’s one of the few places in Mendoza where you can feel the altitude in the glass without anyone having to explain it to you.
And because it’s not the easiest area logistically, we don’t pick many wineries there. If we’re going to build a day around that zone, it has to be worth it.
Huentala is worth it.
Wines, Consistency, and Standards
The wines are strong across the board, and Sombrero is a label I pour with real confidence—because it works. It has character, it holds up at the table, and it gives people a clear sense of where they are.
Another detail matters—and it’s rare in Mendoza: they make kosher wines. Not as a gimmick, not as a checkbox, but as a properly built line that requires precision and consistency. For some travelers, it’s essential. For everyone else, it still says something important about the project: this is a winery that takes standards seriously and does the work behind the scenes to sustain them.
Then there’s the experience itself.
A winery can have great wines and still fail as a visit. Huentala doesn’t. The place feels complete: the setting, the rhythm of the visit, the hospitality. It’s professional without feeling cold.
And the food is part of the reason we choose it too—because food isn’t a bonus on a wine tour; it’s half the memory. When lunch is strong and service is consistent, the entire day lifts.
The Personal Layer (In the Right Proportion)
Finally, the personal part—put in the right place, in the right proportion.
Over the years, I’ve built a genuinely good relationship with Ronit Camsen and Melanie Camsen. We’re the same generation. We’ve grown in this world of Mendoza tourism in parallel, and it’s always been the same dynamic: mutual respect, real support, both ways.
That doesn’t replace the objective reasons we choose the winery—wines, location, food, hospitality. It reinforces them. Because when you already believe in the place, and you also trust the people running it, you can bring guests there without that little doubt in the back of your mind.
Final Thoughts
So if someone asks me why we choose Huentala Wines, the answer is simple:
Because it has the wines, the location, the food, and the warmth—everything a high-level winery should have. And because behind all of that, there’s a way of working that’s serious, consistent, and clean.If you want to understand why places like Huentala matter, our private wine tours in Mendoza are designed to include wineries where altitude, food, hospitality, and long-term vision come together naturally.
Peter Cubillos, a Mendoza-based writer and winemaker with three published books and over 20 years of experience in wine tourism.