One of the interesting things about Chile is that you never know what to expect. Santiago is a large and booming city with construction cranes all over the place.
Check out this flat building, which is at least 20 stories...
A few miles outside of Santiago we went through an interesting neighborhood that included this tire store.
I also am not sure who is in charge of electrical code as this is a common site no matter where you are. (click to zoom)
The elegance of the winery was quite obvious, even though we were visiting in winter. There is a large parking lot and an archway announcing where you are.
The grounds were very nice and had some interesting features to help set them off such as this large trellis.
The original 21 room house of the owners is on the grounds, and they use it to house personal guests on occasion.
There are a few horses and other animals on the grounds. We even saw a few Chilean turkeys grazing among the vines.
We went to a 68 acre collection of about a dozen varieties of grape vines. The vines are oriented so that they get morning and afternoon sun - so they are facing east and west. There was a famous variety of grape in France called Carmenere that was wiped out due to an insect called phylloxera in the 1800's. Phylloxera was introduced to France from America, where the vines have at least some resistance. Everyone thought the grape was extinct and then it was noticed by a Frenchman in the 1990's when visiting Concha y Toro mixed in with other vines such as merlot. Needless to say it has been cultivated in earnest in Chile since that point. This is a Carmenere vine.
The vines use a drip irrigation system (the black pipe about a foot off the ground - more easily seen to scale in the picture above). They don't give the vines much water and the soil is kind of a sandy mixture that maybe has a bit of clay.
Late winter is when they prune the vines by hand, and the vines above have been pruned. The "T" structure is quite thick - perhaps a 2" diameter vine at the base.
The first taste test that we had was a white. I don't drink much in the way of wine, but my inclination is toward white. The Reislings of Michigan are likely my favorite, so this gave a good comparison.
The wine was quite enjoyable, and the host gave a few tips on wine tasting, so I can now provide at least the appearance of someone that has wine sense. We also had a red wine taste. Usually a Merlot is my red standby if I am in a red wine situation. The wine we tasted was a 3 wine blend - 35% of which was the grape 'rediscovered' in the 1990's. Personally, I didn't care for the taste. We were given the glass to keep, but I'm not sure it will make it back to Michigan intact.
We did visit the cellars, which were full of barrels. The barrels on the left are French oak and the barrels on the right are American oak. The two kinds of oak have different characteristics an we were told cost about $1000 USD per barrel. Wine in French barrels ages 16 to 18 months and wine in American barrels was in the range of 10 to 14 months. They hold about 225 bottles of wine. These barrels will be used three times and then discarded. They are washed with peroxide between each use. Some wines are only one use barrels - the barrels are discarded after one use. The entrance to each cellar looks like the first picture below, and the cellar itself is the second picture.
We were also taken to another cellar that is 4 meters below ground that has a different temperature. They had a fun little light show as they say the devil lives in the cellar - a legend to keep people from breaking in and stealing wine. There is also a separate area where certain wines a reserved just for shareholders of the vineyard.
After the tour we went to an interesting restaurant. Part of it had dirt floors. I'm not sure where the cow theme came from, but it convinced me to order a steak. (Vaca is the Spanish word for cow)
One thing that is common in most restaurants is that you are served pan y salsa - bread with salsa. I've actually kind of adopted this as a preferred way to eat bread with a meal. Sometimes I butter the bread and then add the salsa. Salsas can take many forms - though generally with tomatoes (we are in Chile after all) - mild to spicy.
There was a strolling guitar player. He even sang that song from the old Frito's commercial - "ay, ay, ay, ay, I am the Frito bandito." Ok, he wasn't the Frito bandito, but it was the song.
He had a good voice and was quite entertaining. There were also a couple of dancers, so the entertainment included bailar y cantar (sing and dance). They had the white handkerchiefs that were part of the dance. (check out the guy's spurs!)
On the way home we passed a crucifix. In some of the playgrounds there were also statues of Mary. This is a catholic country after all.
One last random thing to throw in that we saw is what appears to be a biker memorial. Not sure what it is all about, but having an interest in cycling I thought I'd include it in today's post. Since it is my blog I guess I get to make the rules.
end of post.
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