Colchagua Valley

We left Vina Del Mar and drove southeast through mountains, small towns and occasional traffic for much of the day.  Cell service is very good on the roads so we have ditched the Spanish Garmin in favor of Google Maps.  Allan is a much calmer driver now that I no longer navigate.  The drive took us through both wild and cultivated land—grapes, strawberries, corn, apricots, nectarines, trees and many other products we did not recognize from the road.  We arrived at Posada Colchagua in the Colchagua Valley wine route about 4 PM and were met by our lovely hostess.

After moving our things from the car to our room we met our hostess in the garden under a sweet gum tree for a glass of carmenere wine (turned into several glasses!) from the closest winery.  She also gave us hand drawn maps of the area and her recommendations for tours and eating.  Fortunately she spoke some English and with my not-so-good Spanish we were able to communicate quite well.  She is an ideal innkeeper, happy and helpful.  We learned a bit about the small town of Santa Cruz and decided to follow her winery recommendations in the morning after a restful evening at the posada.

I woke early, got dressed and sat outside in the courtyard to greet the day with the local rooster and a noisy flock of sparrows. We had a filling breakfast and set off. Since the first winery we came upon was Mont Gras, we stopped there.

We had scheduled a tour for later in the day at another winery so we just wandered in to reception where a gentleman suggested that we join a tasting in about 15 minutes.  Wine and accompanied pairings made a perfect mid morning snack and we left Mont Gras with three bottles of their Carmenere wine.  We also tasted Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc; all very good.  I don’t usually enjoy Sauvignon Blanc, but our taste at Mont Gras was excellent.  This vineyard is filled with many different varieties, including Carmenere, a grape which was all but destroyed in a Phylloxerae (small insects) plague in France in 1867.  Luckily, someone had brought the vine to Chile in the early 1800s and it is one of a few locations that are not afflicted by Phylloxera.

After leaving Mont Gras we drove up and down the wine route, looking at vineyards, grand entrances to wineries and small shops and fruit/vegetable stands.  Our next scheduled stop was at Viu Manent winery for lunch at Rayuela…another beautiful estate. After parking under a grape arbor, we sat in a glass enclosed outdoor area and enjoyed the other diners, the view of vineyards and a park for horse jumping festivities.  We relaxed here over another bottle of Carmenere wine and too much food and were ready for our afternoon nap.  Since it was 3:30 PM, we cancelled our 4:30 wine tour and returned to our B&B for a rest.  Dinner was leftover from lunch and some fruit we purchased on our drive.

It has been a great visit in the Colchagua Valley and we leave tomorrow for the Coast.

Buenas Noches,

Nancy