The second part of my weekend in Santiago is a wine tour of the Concha y Toro winery on the southern margin of the city. It's just over 22km as the sober crow flies from the centre of Santiago. I'm to be collected at 10AM by my excellent guide Juan from my hotel and then we set off, to be returned at 2PM. This will be my first "wine tourism" in Chile - visits to bottle shops don't count!
As expected Juan is there right on time and off we go. We travel to the south for a while on the very large "ring-road" around Santiago - Americo Vespuccio. I don't know who or what it is named after, so perhaps when I finish this, I might consult the mighty oracle that is Wikipedia and see what it has to say about the name (assuming I remember between now and then).
As we head south, we talk about the variation between Australian cities and Santiago. Here, despite being now many (driving) kilometres from the city, there are still an abundance of high-rise flats/apartments, which is obviously in significant contrast to Australian cities, where high-rises pretty much occur in the city centre, then give way to "the 'burbs" before too long as you move outwards. Many of the big buildings have been built since the 70's (from memory) and are generally much younger than the 'normal' houses that still exist in in pockets/areas.
A line of the fantastic (in my opinion) metro system also runs down the middle of Americo Vespuccio. Actually, it runs in the air above it, being elevated around 10m above the roadway. For me, it looks quite spectacular, however when it was being built, objections from the residents meant that the inner city portion runs underground rather than above. I'd guess that further from the city centre, the poorer neighbourhoods had other things to worry about than protesting about an unsightly rail line? They were probably just excited to have decent public transport access to other parts of the city!
In all, it takes around 45 minutes to get to the winery. I feel that we arrive quite suddenly, as I've been rubber-necking for most of the trip and feel like quite the googly-eyed tourist (which I am)! The winery is surrounded by a large wall, and looks quite imposing. It is clearly a significant tourist destination, judging by the large car park!
Again, Juan disappears for a moment, then comes back to announce that the tour is organised to commence at 11.30AM and will be in English - an earlier one way possible, but it would be in Spanish. The delay is no big deal, as it presents the opportunity to scout out the possibilities in the cellar door shop, both for wine and assorted paraphenalia (books, merchandise such as t-shirts, jumpers and aprons, gourmet food bits - all the usual stuff). The building is beautifully built and the shop bit is very well laid out - very impressive, and of course I have completely forgotten to take any photo's of it!
11.30 rolls around and we're ushered into a theatrette for a bit of a promo video for Concha y Toro. As you might expect, it is beautifully shot - their vineyards all look to be in beautiful parts of the world. After the video, we meet our guide for the tour - Camila - who speaks excellent English, and off we go. There are four Americans, two Poms, a Boliviana and myself. We wander off down an lovely path through the gardens towards what was originally the main house, but now houses the administration team - funny how admin usually score the prime bits of real estate in these sorts of things! For the end of winter, the gardens are in good shape, although the pictures of the house on the internet when all of the flowers are blooming look stunning, so I might have to make another trip later in the year.
There is a lake, huge old trees, manicured lawns, and the occasional vineyard thrown in for good measure. We get a bit of a spiel about the house, grounds and vineyards, along with the opportunity to ask questions. Being such a small group, perhaps we are all a bit self-conscious about asking dumb questions, and there aren't many asked, despite the frequent prompting of Camila. The comment is made (not by Camila) that we might be the most boring group of tourists she has ever taken around the grounds!
On heading back to the winery complex from the vineyard, we pause at a table and are given a quick lesson on wine tasting with a young Sauvignon Blanc. Not bad for a Sauv Blanc I have to admit!
Next, it is on to the barrel halls, which I reckon are always an impressive sight and here, yep, they're impressive alright. We are all mighty impressed at the winemakers who work their way through the halls on a regular basis, tasting the progress of the wine maturing in the barrels. Tough job, and everyone is envious!
Next, we head to the famed "Casillero del Diablo". This was originally the private cellar of the owner, but at some point, he realised that his plonk was disappearing. So the story goes, he took advantage of the locals superstitious nature and reported that the devil lived here. It had the desired effect, and the disappearance of his booze ceased (or slowed to manageable levels!). Some workers even reported actual sightings, and of course the part of the cellar housing the best bottles nowadays (the "Don Melchor") is now set up to perpetuate the story. This part of the cellar is beautifully made, complete with arched brickwork, pillars, "mood lighting" and so on. Despite the frequent earthquakes the country receives, apparently it has never need repair, so it seems the Chileno's of the past may have known something about bricklaying...
As we come up out of the cellar, the group divides in two - I'm off for a private tasting session with one of the sommeliers (Nicolas) in a special tasting room, complete with cheese board! Excellent, just the thing I need. We work our way through the wines (chardonnay, merlot, carmenere and cab sauv), talking about how to taste them, where they are from and so on. It is fascinating to discuss them, talk about the differences in the Chilean industry from that in Australia, and so on. The time flies, and then Nicolas announces that it is necessary to choose a favourite from the range. Despite wanting to love the carmenere the most, I choose the cab sauv, and for that, I get another half glass! Fantastic, tipsy before lunch in a winery (again). At the end of all, he also announces that one of the glasses is a present from the winery, along with the cheese board - another pleasing little bonus. In all, it has been a fantastic experience and one worth doing if you are in this part of the world.
Staggering out of the room, it's time to hit the gift shop/cellar door. I'm sure it is no coincidence that we move through there immediately after the tasting session, and true to form, I find it difficult to choose only two bottles. I come out with 5, plus the occasional other thing, and am a little disappointed that they don't appear to have a mailing list type arrangement that is usual back in Oz. I guess I'll just have to buy what I can from the local supermercado.
Juan is waiting back at the vehicle, and we head back to my hotel and arrive safely, pretty much at the designated time.
It's been a great couple of days being chauffered around by Juan, but it's time to go and resume being a normal citizen now. It's definitely time for lunch, so I catch a bus into the commercial part of Las Condes, where the Mundo del Vino "wine store" is located - it seems a bit pretentious to call it a "wine store" rather than a bottleshop, but that would seriously undersell it. Again, I am unable to help myself (and don't want to), and come away with three bottles of carmenere to add to the collection, not to mention my bulging bags for the trip back to Copiapo. To top off the end of a fantastic day, I treat myself to a chai latte at the nearby Starbucks (still yet to find an alternative...).
My flight tomorrow leaves at the very civilised time of 10:50AM, so I might even have a little sleep in. Looking forward to that.
Take care,
A
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