External Reviews
The Independent, UK: Review Text "You may think the destination hotel is a relatively new concept, yet the idea has been around since the 19th century. Characterised as a property not chosen for its convenience, today it's a misused term - many places billed as destination hotels are frequently within easy reach of an international airport. Colomé is a true destination hotel. This nine-suite boutique property is set on the highest wine estate in the world in the Argentinean Andes. To reach it my journey began in Buenos Aires, from where I took a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Salta, in the Jujuy province, near the Bolivian border. Next, I went on the drive of my life, a five-hour road journey to Estancia Colomé, just under 8,000ft up in the foothills."
Travel +Leisure:
In 2001, Swiss wine impresario and art collector Donald Hess, on a quest for new ideal wine-producing conditions (in addition to his operations in California, South Africa, and Australia), handpicked an exquisite 96,000-acre plot in the heart of the Andes, 9,596 feet above sea level in Argentina's northwestern corner. Hess salvaged the property's original 1831 bodega and 25 acres of ramshackle vines in what was then a struggling winery, and, with help from the 400 villagers of Colomé, proceeded to rebuild the bodega, resuscitate the vineyard (adhering to strict biodynamic principles), and construct an exclusive nine-room boutique inn. He didn't stop there: Hess built housing for employees, a water-generated electrical system, a church, a market, a restaurant, a community center for the villagers, and, just because he thought it seemed appropriate, a museum to display the work of American artist James Turrell, scheduled to open next year. Four years later, Bodega Colomé's gorgeous stone patios, romantic colonnades, handcrafted clay tiles (80,000, all made to order by a local artisan and his family), and simple wooden doors and shutters are juxtaposed with a smattering of contemporary sculptures, paintings, and fountains. Color is used boldly in the interiors—a blaze of orange in the dining room, blood-red in the bar—and luxury flourishes abound: Italian flatware, Swiss linens, and hand-painted bedspreadsand pillowcases done by an artist in Buenos Aires. Getting to Colomé requires an arduous five-hour drive from Salta, through pueblitos, forests, valleys, gorges, steppes, deserts, and riverbeds and up an 11,000-foot slope. Colomé feels light-years away from civilization, but you'll eat off Villeroy & Boch bone china. Guests can venture out alone on marked hiking trails or be led by Hess himself on an educational tour, from garden to farm to winery, ending with an enlightening wine tasting before dinner. Now, who doesn't love that kind of adventure?
