6th November - Wine Tour

We were picked up at 9am and were the only people on the tour with a driver and a guide - surely they can';t make any money on that. We headed south out of Santiago to the MAipo Valley where lots of wine is produced stopping along the way to take in the breathtaking views of the Andes and the Glaciers surrounding the City. It's amazing how quickly out of the city the countryside emerges out of the smog. Winding threw one vally we spot a couple of Condors, pretty far away in the distance, but you can still get an impression of their size. round another corner we spot one much closer and can see the grey fetheres on it's wing.
the winery - Concha y toro was started in 1800s by a local rich family. The buildings are in a Frech chateau style, set in beautiful countryside with wild birds wandering around the beautiful gardens and ponds. It's hard to believe you are in South America. Althought once family owned it's now owned by a big corporation and is one of the biggest wineries in Chile.
Our first tasting, actually done sitting in the gardens, is a chardonnay, which I don't usually like, but this one is reather nice as it's mixed with Pinot Gris grapes and not too oaky. The brand was Toro - must look out for it back home. What was surprising and pleasent was the size of the portions, no dribble in the bottom of the glass bearly enough to taste as in North america, this was a half glass, and they were pretty large glasses.
We were then taken into a wine cellar for out second tasting, a Camanera, which is basically a new wine variety. the French used to make this but the vinw was destroyed by pest years ago and it as thought the variety lost forever. However the Chileans had some all along, they just didn't know it, untila few years ago a French wine maker was over and spotted the variety and hey presto and new wine. The Camanera is similar to Merlot but a little lighter and was really nice - the brand was Castilla del Diablo.
We were then taken to the old original cellar, red brick lined vaulted ceilings with row upon row of full barrels. I had to refrain myself from going up and licking one. This cellar has a lock myth that it's haunted by the devil. Basically when they started storing the wines here lots went missing and the owners thought it was locals. Knowing how supersticious they are, the owner put around a story that he had seen the devil in the cellar and guess what, no more wine went missing. The only devil I saw was a projection od old horney on the back wall - well I hope it was a projection as after a couple of glasses of wine anything becomes believable!

Our last wine was a really nice Cab Sauvignon from the Toro brand. We bought a bottle of it to take home and ended up back in the hostel sipping it instead of having any dinner.