Summertime - a San Francisco summer, that is - is the right time to visit Mendoza. The snow piles up in the Andes and offers opportunities for skiing, but seldom accumulates on the dry plain below the mountains. It's a wonderful time, uncrowded, crisp and generally fine, ideal for exploring Mendoza city and the surrounding countryside. Sitting by the fire on a chilly night, a glass of Argentine wine in hand, is a splendid way to pass a winter's night deep in the Southern Hemisphere.

The cultivation of wine vineyards right at the airport could hardly be more fitting. The city and province of Mendoza, tucked away in western Argentina at the foot of South America's highest and most spectacular mountains, produce 75 percent of the wine in Argentina, the world's fifth-largest winemaker. Vineyards are almost as much at home at this airport as the airplanes that bring a growing number of visitors to discover this relaxing, affordable part of the world. Although prices are beginning to creep up, the devaluation of the peso early this decade makes Argentina a travel bargain.

The city of Mendoza, founded in 1561, is the capital of the province, and a prime base for exploring the elegant bodegas - the local name for wineries - that sprout across the arid countryside. Indeed, the bodegas, watered by snowmelt from the Andes through an intricate irrigation system that dates back centuries, are man-made oases in the high, dry plains and foothills.

The next Napa?

We'd been hearing for several years now that this prime wine-producing area of South America is "the next Napa." Well, yes and no. Like Napa and Sonoma, Mendoza produces some very good wines, and like Napa and Sonoma, Mendoza is lovely - but it is much more expansive and rugged, and much less crowded, as well. It's likely to stay that way, thanks mainly to its distance (600 miles) from Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital and largest city, and from Santiago, Chile's capital and largest city (115 miles). What crowds there are show up mainly during the harvest, which runs February to April.

It is our first visit. We hunker down in the heart of Mendoza city, at the Park Hyatt, an 8-year-old hotel in a modern tower rising behind the stately and painstakingly preserved facade of the old Plaza Hotel, a historical landmark. The hotel is well located on the Plaza de la Independencia, downtown.

The Plaza de la Independencia is the biggest and most central of Mendoza city's public squares, filled with heroic statuary commemorating Argentina's wars and well-tended landscaping. We wander through the plaza, past spooning teenagers and sleeping dogs, on our first day in town, getting the feel of the place. We admire mature trees, a handsome fountain and a small modern art museum. Heading off the plaza, we stroll along Sarmiento, a shopping street with smart stores and buzzing cafes.

The cityscape varies from elegant to worn and borderline shabby, all covered by a green canopy of trees. The trees, too, are products of the extensive irrigation that has made this region - which averages just 8 inches of rain a year - come alive. Although Mendoza is a city of 110,000 people, it has the look of a lovely, leafy garden. Wine is so central to Mendoza, even the city sprouts its own wineries. After a short drive from our hotel, we alight in 1884 Restaurant, an upscale eatery attached to Bodega Escorihuela Gascon. The restaurant showcases chef Francis Mallmann's take on traditional Argentine fare. We dine early - 9 p.m., when Argentines are still working up an appetite - feasting on baby goat sprinkled with herbs and washed down with a bottle of aromatic Malbec, Mendoza's trademark red wine.

Big and tannic but also smooth and with lots of fruit, Malbec is an ideal complement to the hearty dishes that dominate Argentina's meat-made cuisine. Argentine beef is excellent, as we expected, on a level with other world-class offerings such as Japan's Kobe beef, Welsh black beef or USDA American prime. But the real eye-opener is Argentina's Patagonia lamb, which is impossibly tender and succulent.

We set off each day with Mendoza native Fernando Paz, a keenly knowledgeable guide who drives us around and translates our English and notional Spanish (e-mail: fernan1304@hotmail.com). Visitors need a car to get to Mendoza's gleaming, modern wineries, some of which are an hour or two out of town and can be widely separated. You also need to call ahead and book winery tastings and tours, as many Mendoza vintners are just getting used to hosting visitors from afar.

We start out at Bodega Salentein, a Dutch-owned winery installed in a striking new steel and concrete, cross-shaped building in the Uco Valley. Salentein has an art gallery, which showcases a variety of paintings depicting traditional Dutch village scenes and modern paintings and sculptures by contemporary artists. The winery also operates an on-site restaurant, a common feature at Mendoza wineries, which encourage visitors to linger after their long drive from the city.

Salentein occupies a spread with inspiring views of the Andes. During our visit in late September - early spring in Argentina - the mountains still hold a mantle of snow. Visible in the distance is Aconcagua, at nearly 23,000 feet the highest peak in the Americas.

We sip and talk wine with one of the bodega's winemakers, then head off to Bodega Andeluna, hurrying to keep our reservation. Unlike most California wineries, Mendoza bodegas require reservations for tastings and tours. There are often no regularly scheduled tour hours, so you must be on time; latecomers may find the front gate closed.

It's worth making the extra effort to enjoy Mendoza's wineries. At Bodega Andeluna, another leading winery, four generations of family winemakers have turned out fine Tupungato Valley vintages. Again, the wines are good - rich on the palate and velvety.

Mayan-style pyramid

Our second day of wine-tasting begins with another ride out of town, starting out on Route 40's smooth ribbon of macadam and occasionally venturing onto dirt roads to take shortcuts.

At Catena Zapata Winery, we sip fine vintages in a Mayan-inspired pyramid that rises from the landscape like an exotic apparition. Next, we alight at Vistalba Winery, followed by lunch at La Bourgogne, a classically inspired French restaurant on the winery grounds. I could, I muse, get used to this. Back in Fernando Paz's Town Car, still savoring all this good food and wine, I give silent thanks that he is driving and not me.

We cap our visit at Bodega Zuccardi, a sprawling, family-run winery that offers bicycle rides and walks through the vineyards, another nice Mendoza touch. Deep in the fields, we spy a small table under the vines. Covered with crisp white linen, it is the very picture of sophisticated rusticity.

"We should take a photo of this," I say to Georgina. "Wouldn't it be great to taste wine here, right in the middle of the vineyards where the grapes were picked?"

"You will," our winery guide interjected. "It's your table."

We sit down for a repast of cheese, olive oil from Mendoza's own groves and grilled vegetables - and, of course, Zuccardi vintages. For wine people like us, it doesn't get any better.

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This article appeared on page M - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle