Jan 30/31 - Chilean wines

We thought we'd take a couple of days to see a few of the wineries around Santiago. With no clear plan or map, Wade, Rena and ourselves decided to rent a car and just hope for the best.

The first stop was Concha Y Toro, which I think is Chile's largest wineries. They sell wines under a number of different brands (including Casillero del Diablo - The Devil's Cellar), and are exported practically everywhere.


It took a few stops to get the right directions but we finally made it there for an afternoon tour. We got to sample a few wines during the tour, and then we decided to belly up to the tasting bar for a few more. Rena had ate something dodgy for lunch, so she was the responsible one. Tanis went for the most expensive wines on the list, Wade and Casey (driver and co-pilot) went for volume.


We then headed south thinking we'd just trip over another winery or two and find a place to stay. We found Santa Rita, but were sent away as we didn't have a reservation. We then found a small micro-winery who's owner/tour guide didn't speak english. But we got some directions from him for the nearest town of any size, bought a bottle of wine and headed off with thoughts of hotel rooms in our heads.

After a few minor detours, we finally made it to Raconcagua and found a hotel downtown. The guide book didn't have many good things to say about the mostly industrial town of about 200,000 people, but we found it to be pretty friendly.

The next day we went to the Miguel Torres winery. It was a very nice winery with a very nice restaurant where we drank many nice wines with lunch. We then had the tour.


That was pretty much it for the wineries, as we had to get back to Santiago tonight as we were flying out first thing tomorrow morning to Buenos Aires. The ladies were pretty quiet on the way back - possibly the wine?