Piattelli Vineyards — Restaurant in Municipio de Cafayate

Good wine. Terrible experience.

If you enjoy faux Tuscan architecture, poor service, and the feeling of being taken for granted, you’ll love Piattelli. If your tastes don’t run along those lines, I suggest you stop by to buy some of their high end wines and move on.

We started with a tasting. We signed up for the most expensive option: their limited edition wines. Towards the end of the tasting, we were poured their two best wines. My wife and I felt they tasted slightly oxidized, so we asked when the bottled had been open. Yesterday, we were told. A few minutes later we asked the person leading the tasting how different the wines would be when just opened, as we were interested in bringing a few bottles home but had a hard time judging how much of what we were tasting was coming from the 24+ hour “decanting”. Based on our past experience, any serious winery would have immediately offered to open fresh bottles so we could compare them. Alas, all we got was a “they’re very different when just opened”.

Gluttons for punishment, we next had lunch at their patio. After some nice empanadas, we found ourselves waiting for an hour for our next course (a salad and a small appetizer). We asked a couple of times about our food, were told “it’s coming”, and kept waiting. About 45 minutes into this, my wife went inside to pay for the wines we had bought and mentioned the wait to the front desk. She was told that their restaurant likes to practice “slow food”. As someone born and raised in Argentina, I understand and appreciate the leisurely pace of meals there (and often complain about the frenetic pace of meals in the US). However, at some point “slow food” becomes “no food”, and the people at the surrounding tables who had arrived after we did had finished their main courses while we were still waiting for ours. The most likely explanation is that our order got lost somewhere. Stuff happens and I’m OK with that. This is by no means the first time that something I’ve ordered didn’t show up. But, as with the wine tasting, an establishment that is as good as Piattelli pretends to be would have fessed up to the mistake, apologized, and maybe offered a glass of wine or some other gesture. All we got were annoyed stares every time we asked about the food.

We left, regretting the whole experience, and went back to Vinas en Flor, where the top wines may not be as nice (though we found their wines more consistent throughout their line), but everything else was...

Photos taken by @alejandroseveriniph (instagram)

You see the 5 star reviews and you know you want this place to be the best you’ve ever been to but in the back of your mind those 1 and 2 star reviews stick out because their complaints are valid. We arrived with a reservation for a wine tasting and lunch. we were given a tour by a very nice girl whose name escapes me which is sad because she was super sweet, took the time to explain everything in English so I could understand and then chatted with my partner in Spanish as well. The wine tasting was delicious but we appreciated the reds more, especially the limited edition wine after we knew just how little of it is produced. Was it worth the $3000 ($10USD)? For the limited wine alone we thought so! We tried a total of 6 wines, two whites and 4 reds. This tasting was quicker paced than our other tastings. They didn’t provide a snack right away when we began our tour but after we asked they handed us individually packaged crackers. The lunch? TOO LONG, the wait in between courses was 20-30 minutes at times and caused us to ask for the dessert and check to be brought with the final course. The courses were much too large to truly enjoy but the most careless part? We noted a dairy allergy and an anniversary celebration but neither notes were taken into account. Service was good from Marcia however. Most reviews complain about the server but we thought she was efficient and responded to our requests nicely. Overall, our meal was 10,000...

Spectacular views, spectacular wine but not so spectacular service!

Upon entering we felt unwelcomed by staff. We had no reservation and this seemed to be a problem with the staff even though there were numerous free tables. Eventually we were told we could have a table until 5pm and were made to feel this was because of other reservations which we had no problem with although this made no sense as they didn’t have other reservations at 5pm as we sat beyond this time in the end up.

Once we sat down, our table was uncleaned and remained dirty for at least 20 mins. We had to ask to be given menus which is a basic when entering a restaurant/bar. Unfortunately after waiting 30 minutes with no one near us, we had to walk to the bar for ourselves to order as no one came to take the order. The initial server (male) was cleaning glasses (which he made it clear was more important than assisting our needs) so instructed his female counterparts to take our order.

Overall, the service was very poor (particularly from one gentleman). We weren’t made feel welcome from the reception staff to the waiter. Disappointing for a luxurious venue. Unsure if this was due to the fact we were dressed casually (which we have not found an issue at other venues) or if this was just general ignorance from staff but overall it tainted out experience here.

It’s extremely disappointing as if staff had behaved in a more welcoming manner we feel that we could have had a very different experience...