Hello! I apologize for the long period of silence! We’ve been down in Patagonia, where the free-time has been short and the internet routinely terrible. We’ve made it back to the big city now: we’re in Buenos Aires! But we’ve got a good bit of catching up to do on the blog, so we start with our trip to Colchagua Valley!

Vacation to Wine Country

We joked that since we’d been in Santiago for so long, and would be going back there for a night after visiting wine country, that our wine country trip was just a weekend away from home. Other than lugging our backpacks with us, it felt like it.

We’d thought about taking day trips from Santiago to visit wineries, but decided instead to spend one weekend in Santa Cruz in Colchagua valley. We caught a bus out of Santiago to get down there, and in about 3 hours we were in the quiet town of Santa Cruz. It was time to explore some wineries! 

We asked our hotel for help in getting transportation to the wineries, and they hooked us up with a taxi that, for about $25 USD, would take us to the three we wanted to visit the first day, which sounded great to us. A few minutes later, Alejandro, our driver for the day, showed up and we were on our way!

Mont Gras

Our first stop was at Mont Gras. A very nice man who worked there, Gonzalo, met us, and asked if we were interested in taking the tour that was just about to start. The tours at all the wineries are very expensive, and this one was no different, so we’d decided the one we did previously at Concha y Toro was enough for us. We declined and said we’d just like to do some tastings, if we could. Gonzalo went one better for us: he offered to pour us a couple glasses, for free. Sold! We told Alejandro we’d call him when we were ready to head back out, and grabbed some seats in Mont Gras’ very comfortable and nice common area.

Gonzalo brought us each a glass of Carménère, and said we were free to explore the gardens if we liked. We did like! So we headed outside for a look around. The wine was excellent, and the grounds were beautiful. When we came back inside, Gonzalo got us another glass of wine. Seriously, people, you’re too kind!

We loved Mont Gras. The wines we tried were both great, and everyone there we talked to were incredibly welcoming and generous. We’d hoped to buy some and have it shipped home, but unfortunately they’re unable to do shipments like that to the states. They don’t distribute much in the states period, but they did mention they distribute through Harris Teeter. We’ll be on the lookout!

Estampa

We had Gonzalo call Alejandro for us, who arrived quickly and we were on our way to our next winery. Next stop was Estampa, which was close to Mont Gras. We showed up and… it looked very closed. There were no cars, no signs of other tourists. Hello? We walked around to the front, and there was one attendant there who told us they were indeed open for tastings. We thanked Alejandro as he left us there, and went inside.

The quietness and lack of people there reminds me… touring here was nothing like other touring we’ve done in wine areas. I’ve been in Napa valley and Temecula, California, and the wine areas are just lousy with people. Streets full of traffic, all the wineries brimming with tons of tourists, madness. Colchagua valley is a famous, lucrative wine area, and here we were at Estampa, on a Saturday afternoon, all by ourselves.

It was lovely.

The attendant who helped us was Felipe, and he was sociable and kind, with a great sense of humor. We talked about Chile, and how much we’ve enjoyed it. He tempted us with details of costs of living. We talked about our home. We talked about politics. We even talked about wine some! Which… eh, we had a lot, turns out. We thought we were ordering tastings of four wines; what we got were full glasses of four wines. Then for good measure, we got another one before we left. Good thing we were sharing all the glasses!

Estampa has a beautiful tasting area, and an even nicer outdoor seating area, where we’d heard they do wine, food, and music at sunset on Saturdays. We made reservations for that, and when Alejandro showed up for us, we were on our way again.

Laura Hartwig

Erika and I were feeling good after all that wine, but we still had one other winery we wanted to visit. Laura Hartwig is just outside the main area of Santa Cruz, and very walkable from our hotel. We figured we’d get dropped off there, then just walk back after we were done. Alejandro took us there, and we asked him if he’d be available to take us back to Estampa that evening. Of course he was! We arranged a time to meet him that evening and bid him buen día.

One of the reasons we wanted to go to Laura Hartwig last, other than it being walkable from town, is we’d read they had good empanadas there, and it was well past lunch time. So we ordered three, along with a couple glasses of wine, and sat outside to enjoy the perfect weather. Because we’re total pigs, we ended up ordering 2 more empanadas before we left. Turns out, those empanadas were about 5 dollars each. Whoops!!

We enjoyed the wines we had at Laura Hartwig, and those empanadas were really quite good. We also got some adorable pictures.

Sunset at Estampa

Alejandro picked us up for our sunset date and it was back to Estampa. After initially getting mauled by bugs, it was a great time! We ordered an enormous meat and cheese plate, and of course a couple glasses of wine, as we watched the sun slowly disappearing behind the mountains. As he was leaving for the day, Felipe saw us and stopped by to talk. He joked with us and wished us well on the rest of our travels. It was nice to see him again before we left!

Viu Manent

Sunday around lunch, Alejandro picked us up for our second day of touring. We’d planned to go out to Montes, then come back to Viu Manent, but Alejandro said he’d have to charge more to go out to Montes. So we skipped it, and just went straight to Viu Manent instead.

We got signed up for a tasting, which is more than an hour off, so we took the time to walk the grounds. Which, are totally beautiful. They have a huge area, and the weather that day is probably the best we’ve seen since we started these world travels. They have a restaurant and a cafe (at the restaurant, you can only order wine by the bottle; at the cafe, you can order by the glass… the restaurant and cafe are side-by-side… I don’t understand any of this). They have vast vineyards and… an equestrian area? Unfortunately, we never saw that get used.

We returned for our tasting, which was more substantial than I expected. It was 5 wines, and was an actual walk-thru of each of them, describing them and the various brands that Viu Manent produces. Our guide was Eric, an ex-pat of sorts from Texas (tex-pat? thank you, I’ll be here all the week), who traveled to Chile and never left. We had a great time talking with him, and learning about their wines, which were excellent.

We got lunch from the restaurant there, which was good though a bit expensive, as to be expected. The gazpacho was very good, as was the salsa they served with the bread. But I’d like to rush through lunch in order to talk about the best part of the weekend.

On their grounds, a little ways past the equestrian track, they have two hammocks set up. Erika and I collapsed into one and there went the afternoon! We took naps, and otherwise just relaxed together, enjoying the perfect weather and lovely scenery.

We spent hours in the hammock before finally wandering back up to the cafe to give Alejandro a call. Apparently, he was concerned we’d ditched him since it had been so long; he had gone back by the hotel looking for us hours before! We cracked up and assured him no, we just nuked an entire day at one winery, that’s all. When we got back to the hotel, the attendant there joked with us about us having gone missing too.

Alejandro

I wanted to reserve a special bit of thanks for Alejandro, who carted us around all weekend. He was always quick to show up, and quick with conversation. He pointed out numerous places in Santa Cruz to tell us about them. He talked about his family, we talked about our whole getting-married-traveling-the-world business. He always spoke clearly and slowly, such that even I could understand! Thanks for helping us have such a great weekend Alejandro, y hasta luego!

What’s Next?

The next day, we took a bus back to Santiago where we stayed the night in a wonderful AirBnb in Lastarria. No, we didn’t go back to Chipe Libre for more pisco sours, though I was tempted. We instead went to Boca Nariz and drank more wine because, I mean, one weekend wasn’t enough right?

The next day, we took a 3.5 hour flight waaaaaay down south to Punta Arenas, to begin our stay in Patagonia! Come back next time to hear about our time there. Thanks so much for reading!!