Wine Tour Urbano

Wine Tour Urbano is a group that brings Argentina wine tasting tours into the city. This week, eight local design boutiques in Palermo paired with local wineries to host something of a wine crawl. We met at Honduras y Armenia at 7pm. For $100 ARS (~$20 USD), you'll receive a red wine glass, entry into a raffle, and a map of the eight stops. Take your time on the self guided tour throughout the neighborhood. At each store you'll find the Wine Tour Urbano flag, waving you inside where a table is set offering tastings of 2 to 4 varieties. You'll learn from a representative about where the wine comes from, the year, and it's particular characteristics. Look around the boutique, then move on to the next stop. At 10pm, the tour wraps up and all the participants gather back at the meeting point. The raffle takes place and gifts from the shops and bottles of wine are given away to celebrate.

The wine tour originally costs $150 ARS. However, if you follow @winetoururbano on Twitter, they'll post an offer a few days before the tour. This week, we got $50 ARS off per person for bringing in small toy. Sandro and I spent $40 ARS total on two toys, saving $60 ARS between the two of us.

There were approximately 60 people participating on the tour. But because it is self guided and lasts three hours, there were never more than 6 or 8 at a stop at any given time, so no long waits for wine. Most of the representatives spoke about the wines in Spanish, but were happy to answer questions in English. Also, the tastings are just that...tastings. Don't worry, you won't be drinking eight full glasses of wine! Each stop has crackers as well to get you through.

The raffle was probably the funnest part about the tour. Once everyone had regrouped, the hostess started pulling names from the hat. There were so many prizes that it seemed like everyone got something. We won a bottle of fancy bubbly, so we were happy! This week, because it was the last tour of the season, we were also offered free pizza at the bar down the street! Everyone rushed over, and sure enough, by the time we'd ordered drinks, there were hot pizzas being passed around the room. There was plenty for everyone and the staff was really on top of it.

What I loved about Wine Tour Urbano was that it was the most organized and functional event I think we've been to here in BA. It started on time, it was well laid out and informative, and the promises of discounts and free food were kept. It was quite a deal at only $100 ARS!