Tunuyán

The Uco Valley was Huarpe land, watered by the rivers coming down from the Andes, and lay on the southern edge of colonial Mendoza. The valley sat on one of the routes across the mountains: in 1817, as José de San Martín led the Army of the Andes into Chile, a column of his troops crossed by the Portillo pass to the west. In January 1823, after the campaigns in Chile and Peru, San Martín came back across the Andes to Mendoza, and the Manzano Histórico in the foothills west of Tunuyán commemorates that return; its monument, Retorno a la Patria, was inaugurated on 31 December 1950.

The town grew as the head of Tunuyán Department and a service centre for the farms of the valley, which irrigated the plain from the Tunuyán River and became known for apples, peaches, walnuts and vines. From the late 19th century fruit growing and the vine shaped the valley, and farm trade shaped the town.

Since about 2000, investment drawn by the valley's mix of altitude, soils and climate has changed it more than anything since irrigation. Vineyards were planted high up towards the foothills, wineries and lodges followed, and the Uco Valley — Tunuyán, Tupungato and San Carlos — became one of Argentina's most important regions for high-quality wine and wine tourism. The town grew by a third between the 2010 and 2022 censuses.

Tunuyán's cultural life follows the rural calendar and Cuyo's folk traditions. The town hosts the Festival Nacional de la Tonada in early February, a national festival of the tonada, the sung guitar music of Cuyo, held in the municipal amphitheatre. A departmental Vendimia elects a harvest queen who goes on to the provincial festival in Mendoza, and the Fiesta Provincial de la Cereza celebrates the cherry harvest each December.

San Martín is the town's hero. Each year, on the last Sunday of January, people gather at the Manzano Histórico to mark his return to his homeland, and his death is commemorated on 17 August. In late April a mountain Stations of the Cross, the Vía Crucis de la Montaña, is walked at the same site, and climbers meet at the Cajón de Arenales in the mountains.

The painter Carlos Alonso was born in the town. The arrival of wine tourism has brought international visitors, chefs and winemakers to a valley that still keeps the unhurried manner and the asado-and-mate weekends of rural Mendoza.

About 38,000 people lived in the town at the 2022 census, up from about 29,000 in 2010. It lies at about 870 metres above sea level on the Tunuyán River, about 83 km south of Mendoza, and serves a wide rural area with its shops, schools, bus terminal and banks.

Agriculture is the economy. Vineyards cover more and more of the valley, but apples, peaches, cherries and walnuts are still grown. Wine tourism has added hotel, restaurant, guiding and transport jobs, and seasonal work peaks at harvest time.

The rhythm is that of a country town: shops close for the afternoon siesta and the plaza fills in the evening. Water from the Andes is everything here. The Tunuyán River, one of the province's great sources of water, rises on Mount Tupungato, runs past the town and is dammed downstream at El Carrizal; its flow comes from melting snow and, in some years, glaciers. Inflation and the cost of living shape household budgets as across Argentina.

Wine leads. The Uco Valley's vineyards, at 900 to 1,200 metres, are planted mostly with Malbec and Sémillon, with Bonarda and Barbera in smaller amounts, and the wide gap between day and night temperatures favours high-quality grapes. Many wineries serve long lunches with dishes paired to their wines.

In town, the food is everyday Mendoza: milanesas, the breaded cutlets that are a national standby, pasta, grilled beef and the large empanadas of the province, made with olives and garlic. Chivito, young goat, roasted over an open fire, is the celebratory meal, and the weekend asado is a ritual. Cuyo home cooking such as tomaticán, a dish of tomato and egg, and sopaipillas, rounds of fried dough, is found here too.

The orchards supply the rest. Apples, peaches, plums and cherries come from the valley's orchards, whose stone-fruit plantings have grown in recent years, and walnuts are a local speciality. Mate is drunk throughout the day.