Once into the wine regions though, we had a great opportunity to test our wine tasting/drinking skills. Susan Druoin, Andrea’s Royal Roads friend from Montreal, joined us in Santiago for a one-week “ride-along”.
After a couple of days in Santiago, we continued west to the coast to visit the very busy sea-side towns of Vina del Mar and Valpariso. Unlike North Americans, who tend to break up their vacation and take at least part of it in the middle of winter to get away from the cold, South Americans typically take their entire vacation – usually a full month, at one time. So for either the month of January or February, they typically head to the beach with the whole family. Again, based on what we have been told, it is not uncommon for a family to head to the same place as their neighbours, year after year, and generation after generation. As a result, the beach areas in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay can become very crowded for a very short period, then empty for the rest of the year.Once we had had our fill of sun, sand and expen
sive bar drinks – if that is even possible - we headed east up the valley towards the Andes to our first wine stop. In Chile we visited two different bodegas. Susan organized the first tour from Canada following a wine tasting event that she attended. Errazuriz is one of the most famous wineries in Chile, and has won numerous wine awards in Europe. While it cost us a bit of money, it included a one-on-one tour of the vineyards, tasting lessons – as if anyone needs “lessons” in wine tasting! - practice using the wine “point system”, and of course a fair bit of consumption. After that, we had a great lunch, made specifically for us, and eaten in a very beautiful garden veranda looking out onto the vineyard. Lunch of course included another 3 bottles of wine – a light white to be taken with appitizers, a robust red with our main course and of course a late harvest with “postre” (dessert)… all in all, a good investment.
In the afternoon, we had a more casual visit to a small family owned operation - Vina Sanchez de Loria. The (older) owner personally toured us around and was very proud to introduce us to his (even older) father who was the son of the original founder of the winery. They are a very small operation and do not export any wine, but our tour was great, and certainly gave us a more personal perspective of the business. The family also grows Thompson Seedless table grapes for export to North America. By far, these were the most spectacular (and largest) grapes we had ever seen in our lives.
sive bar drinks – if that is even possible - we headed east up the valley towards the Andes to our first wine stop. In Chile we visited two different bodegas. Susan organized the first tour from Canada following a wine tasting event that she attended. Errazuriz is one of the most famous wineries in Chile, and has won numerous wine awards in Europe. While it cost us a bit of money, it included a one-on-one tour of the vineyards, tasting lessons – as if anyone needs “lessons” in wine tasting! - practice using the wine “point system”, and of course a fair bit of consumption. After that, we had a great lunch, made specifically for us, and eaten in a very beautiful garden veranda looking out onto the vineyard. Lunch of course included another 3 bottles of wine – a light white to be taken with appitizers, a robust red with our main course and of course a late harvest with “postre” (dessert)… all in all, a good investment.
In the afternoon, we had a more casual visit to a small family owned operation - Vina Sanchez de Loria. The (older) owner personally toured us around and was very proud to introduce us to his (even older) father who was the son of the original founder of the winery. They are a very small operation and do not export any wine, but our tour was great, and certainly gave us a more personal perspective of the business. The family also grows Thompson Seedless table grapes for export to North America. By far, these were the most spectacular (and largest) grapes we had ever seen in our lives.The third tour was in Mendoza, Argentina at the La Rural (Rutini) winery. (We’ll talk about the spectacular drive through the Andes in the next posting.) The one hour tour gave us a chance to tour the wine museum and try some more wine. Feeling a little like cattle – there were numerous large groups being toured at the same time - it was quite a different experience from our tours in Chile. The fact that they only gave you a “sip” of wine didn’t improve our impression, but in all fairness the wine museum was pretty impressive.
The gran finale for wine tasting was the four day wine tasting extravaganza in Mendoza. (Which, unfortunately for Susan, took place after she had left). There were over 40 different wineries offering more than 200 different wines. At AR$20 (US$6) for 8 glasses of wine, it even fit our budget. Needless to say, it has been a tough couple of weeks…cheers!
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