Akumal Tips

Offered on October 3rd, 2006 by Tortuga.
Tips: Shopping tips.

When you vacation in a tropical destination like Akumal Mexico, cervesa is everywhere. Good quality wines, however, are a little harder to find, but if you are a wine connoisseur, there are options in Akumal that can exceed your expectations.

Latin American wines: Excellent Argentinean wines can be had at a good value, especially the malbecs. These wines are pictured amid the picturesque view provided by La Lunita restaurant in North Akumal.

The first thing you should know is that taxes on imported wines are extremely high, so venture away from the Napa Valley choices with which you might be more familiar and sample some excellent Latin and Central American wines that are available here in the Riviera Maya. While Mexican wines are not generally considered to be the best wines, there are some good choices. Chilean wines are widely known to be good quality wines at an excellent value, but our suggestion is to savor excellent Argentinean wines, especially Malbecs.

You need to know your choices of where you can buy wines in Akumal and also your choices of what quality wines are available in Akumal restaurants. But before giving these options, I must offer a very unique service that may be a perfect choice if you plan to be purchasing a half a case of wines or more for enjoying in your villa or condo.

Wine makes house calls

Akumal Wines is a service that will deliver highly rated wines directly to your villa or condo. In fact, you can place your order before traveling to the Riviera Maya and they can have your case delivered the very day you arrive or even the day before. There is a minimum of $100 US, but this may be the best option if you would rather spend your time on the beach rather than spend your time shopping and have a great bottle of wine in your villa the moment you arrive. You can find Akumal Wines’ link in our Akumal directory.

Wine in Akumal stores

Quality Akumal wines can be found in local stores. What to watch out for: hedge your bets that it has been properly stored by purchasing in an air-conditioned store, go for Chilean and Argentinian wines primarily, and weigh out price vs. convenience.

If you are only going to need an occasional bottle or two, then you will need to purchase your wine at a store. In Akumal, the most convenient store with the best selection is the Chomak, located at the front of town just before the arch. The store is air conditioned and they have a fairly large selection of wines, but you will pay for the convenience — they tend to be much higher priced than the same wines would be if purchased at Sam’s or Walmart in Playa del Carmen.

Directly across the road from the Chomak is the Super Las Palmas mini-super. You will find a small selection in this convenience store but our concern is that this mini-super is not air-conditioned. You have no idea how long a particular bottle has been on the shelf and how much extreme temperature it has had to endure. These wines are stored improperly and it may affect the taste.

In North Akumal, there is the Corner Store next to La Buena Vida. There is not much of a selection here, but if you are in a bind and need to buy a wine in North Akumal, you can purchase the fair=quality budget wine, Concho y Toro.

If you are willing to venture across Highway 307 into the pueblo, there is one more good option for purchasing wines in Akumal. The Super Mar Caribe is a medium sized convenience store that has a good selection of wines, not as many as the Chomak but more reasonably priced. Unique to this mini-super in the pueblo is that it is air-conditioned, too, so you do not have to worry about improper storage. While they do not always replenish their stock as frequently as we would like, you can fine some good value wines here. The wine standard in the Riviera Maya is Casillero del Diablo, Concho y Toro’s more premium wine. You cannot go wrong by buying this label if you need a recommendation of a good wine that is widely available.

Better deals further up the highway

Casillero del Diablo, a Chilean wine, is the standard from which wines begin to be compared. It is not the best wine you can get, but it is a very good wine, a safe bet, and commonly found in most quality restaurants and grocery stores.

Your best wine deals are going to be in Playa del Carmen. A nice selection of wines can be found at Sam’s Club, Soriana’s, and Chedraui on the highway, and closer towards the beach on Avenue 30, Walmart and Mega. You will find wines at these stores for better prices than what you can find in Akumal, but of course it requires a 30 minute drive north. For comparison, at the time of this writing, a bottle of Casillero del Diablo is 135 pesos at Super Mar Caribe in Akumal and about 95 pesos at Sam’s in Playa del Carmen.

For the best wine choices at Akumal restaurants, see our next tip in this series under “Restaurant tips” …

Also check out these tips…

• Akumal Tip #032 - Pizza, Pizza

• Akumal Tip #004 - A shortcut to quick pronunciation fluency in Spanish — let me roll it to you!

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