Santa Cruz is a small town in the center of the Colchangua Valley wine industry and it's closer proximity to Santiago means it is slightly more developed in its wine tourism. But only slightly. On our first morning, we learned our pricey bed and breakfast's advertised bikes were broken so we rented a pair from Hostal Del Centro and biked about 18 km along stunningly quiet and beautiful roads, past vineyards and horses and farms and slow old men bicycle riders, to the beautiful estate of Viña Montgras.
 |
| Mark is the horse whisperer |
 |
| Viña Montgras |
Here we did the coolest wine-related activity ever: we blended our own personal wine concoction! First we started by tasting about 15 different wine grapes, right from the vine (sure, some tasted different but my non-expert palate couldn't really distinguish too many differences).
Then we saw the huge cylinders where the grape juice would spend the next 20 or so days fermenting. And we got to sample the juice right from the spout! We also learned that in Chile, the word 'Reserva' on the label just means it was kept in the barrels longer (up to 12 months) than the non-Reserva varietals so has more to do with the amount of oaky barrel flavors instead of being considered a premium wine (as it may be construed in the US).
 |
| Just a few barrels! |
Lastly, we were led to the basement cave area where huge bottles of Merlot, Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon waited for us.
After donning our aprons, we first sipped each one separately and then blended the portions we desired in a tall glass cylinder (I knew chemistry class would come in handy one day!).
 |
| Things got a little messy in my mixing area. |
When the final blend was just right, we calculated the portions per 750 ml bottle and poured those in to the big bottle.
We even got to cork, lid and label our own bottles. Awesome!
A little giddy from the wine, we leisurely biked back to town, stopping for a delicious patio lunch, before biking through the nearby vineyard to Laura Hartwick.
I didn't care for this vineyard mostly because the name was so non-Chilean (even though she is one) but the tasting host Cesar was very kind and let us stay late and enjoy a glass out front. They are one of only 10 vineyards (of 350) in Chile that make an exclusively Petit Verdot bottle. It was super dry but worth trying.
In the evening we swapped stories on the B&B patio over wine with Dan, a New Yorker with a sailboat and a love of wine. He was invited by a pourer earlier that day to meet up that night. Apparently all the young winery staff get together periodically to relax (and probably compare stories about the crazy or funny tourists that visit their wineries!). So we ventured out and soon were chatting with the cashier Maria we met earlier at Montgras and Cesar at Laura Hartwick. They were all super nice and fun to hang out with (and even tried to not let us leave at midnight though I was wined out by that late hour).
The next day we took a break from wine to venture to the Pacific coast (which is never very far when your country is only 110 miles wide on average). Pichilemu had dropped off our travel plans but it was perfect for a day trip.
 |
| Roadside mote. Mote is an awesome Chilean dessert beverage that consists of a cooked dried peach, cinnamon, juices and husked wheat grains. |
Mark braved the water to surf while I enjoyed watching the local fisherman catch fish right from the beach, dogs run in and out of the ocean and families nearby build sandcastles.
 |
| Fisherman on the shore, surfers in the distance |
Beautiful Pacific coastline!
We were joined on the beach by a surprise guest. This lil gal, Carolina, came up to us and said 'llama take a selfie' so we just had to join her.
 |
| Family photo! |
On our last day in Santa Cruz wine country, we visited the local harvest fest in nearby tiny Peralillo. This was awesome! If you ever visit Chilean wine country, I highly recommend the fall time frame because each town does their own Vendimia (harvest fest) complete with wine tasting, musical entertainment, food (so much meat grilling) and sometimes even a rodeo!
 |
| Two lil boys looking over the backside of the rodeo stands. |
We met up with Cristy from our B&B and enjoyed a bottle in the shade before returning to town. We passed tons of vineyards the entire 3 hours to Santiago at sunset. Beautiful!
(In regard to the title of this blog post: Palisade is a wine region in Colorado)
PS- I have Mark's permission to share this story. After our great wine blending tour with Gonzales at Montgras, he grabbed some pesos from our bag to tip him. He told me he tipped him 3,000 (about $6). After our long day, we returned to our B&B and the host confused Mark by saying someone from Montgras had called to get a hold of him. So she calls them back and Gonzales was still confusing Mark by apologizing for receiving such a big tip. Turns out Mark grabbed a 1,000 and 20,000 peso note (instead of a 2,000) so ended up tipping him about $35. Gonzales knew it must have been a mistake so felt really bad and wanted to return it! Of course that would have been crazy but it was sweet. We hope he splurged a little extra on his family that night :) From now on, we will be checking the peso notes a little closer!
No comments:
Post a Comment