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Vinotherapy Spreads like a Vine in Argentina's Wine Districts

[Ed. Note: Hotel Maven Tim Leffel is tooling around the gastronomic heaven of Argentina right now and finds that when you get tired of drinking wine, the hotels will be glad to slather some on the outside of your body as well.]

"Vinotherapy" is the word of the day in the upscale hotels of Mendoza and Cafayate. Boutique wine lodge Club Tapiz claims to have kicked it all off two years ago and if three makes a trend, they've got a good one going.

While we can't vouch for the effectiveness of the vino-infused treatments at Club Tapiz, the celebrity chef in their restaurant certainly makes the best use of the hotel's extensive cellar. The even fancier new Cavas Wine Lodge does wine baths and grape seed exfoliation. After that you can retire to your cabana plopped in the middle of a vineyard. Snuggle by the roof deck fire sipping some sparkling wine the traditional way, looking out at the snow-capped Andes.

In the center of town, at the Park Hyatt Mendoza, two Thai masseuses slather on wine-infused body lotion and guests find white wine shampoo in their rooms. (Suite guests get both red and white, so an eau de vin rouge in your hair has more cachet.)

Up in Cafayate, the Starwood Luxury property Patios de Cafayate opened last fall with the best spa in northern Argentina, including private whirlpool baths that look out at vineyards and mountains. They will slather you down with both pulp and seeds, then put you in a bath and pour in a few pitchers of wine. Forget the malbec: cabernet savignon is apparently the bathing wine of choice.