We ventured off the backpacker trail to Santiago with a stop in Talca. Located in the center of the Maule wine region, this town also is known for being the location in which Bernardo O'Higgins signed the declaration of independence from Spain back in the early 1800's (every town has streets and plazas named after O'Higgans). Now it is a weathered town with lots of evidence of the massive destruction caused by the huge earthquake in 2010 (the epicenter was very close).
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| Lots of 1st semester university students were running around town covered in rags and paint to collect money for their tuition |
But the neighboring Peruvian restaurant (getting excited for Peru!) and the Plaza de Armas were lovely, the ice cream was cold and of course, the wine! This is definitely no Napa and doesn't seem like something tourists or locals seem to do but a few wineries offered tours and tastings. We first ventured out of town to Corral Victoria via a cheap collectivo. We had a lovely three-course lunch to accompany their famous Carmenere wine. The grape was originally planted in Bordeaux, France. It means 'crimson' in French which describes the beautiful color the leaves turn during harvest season. Now it is solely produced right here in Chile.
The tour was relatively informal, given to us by one of the two ladies who were hand-preparing the interesting bottle shapes that featured the local ancestry. The vineyards, with their leaves a mix of fall colors, were fun to walk around too.
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| They are unique because they have special bottles that are dressed like the local men. Kinda cute! |
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| They use a hot glue gun and gluestick to dress and label each bottle. They do this because they found out that supermarket customers steal the dresses! Now they have to buy the bottle to get the dress! |
We returned to town in time for ice cream and to rest for the late afternoon sun as the locals do: on a bench in the Plaza de Armas. We noticed a high percentage of people at the plaza were teens making out, maybe because that is maybe not allowed in the households of this predominantly Catholic country (divorce was just legalized in 2004).
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| Mark thought it was a little creepy that I took their photo. |
On our second day, we caught a collectivo the other direction to tour Viña Balduzzi which is one of the bigger operations in the area. The tour highlighted the damages sustained in the huge 2010 earthquake. It actually destroyed the pretty white convent next door (which is used on their label) though it has since been rebuilt.
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| The old cylinder was crushed in the earthquake (left) so they now have cemented them to the ground (right). |
Their secret cellar holds one bottle of every vintage and year since they opened decades ago. Unfortunately it looks like they'd all break if another quake hit! The tastings were delicious and we took home a small bottle of their late harvest white wine.
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| One of the last big barrels that survived the earthquake |
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| Caught sampling grapes in the vineyards! |
Then it was time to catch the train! Chile's train network is becoming significantly less utilized, especially since many of the tracks and stations sustain a lot of damages with each earthquake, but I love trains so it was fun to add 'train' to our increasing list of various methods of transportation we have taken on our travels!
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