Our Chilean adventure is winding down. Today we will get a brief tour of some of the other parts of Valparaiso that we haven’t explored on our own, then we will visit Vina del Mar, which is a tony beach town just to the north, then head to the airport after a late lunch. We aren’t looking forward to the return to cold, short days, but this has been a good trip and it is time for some familiar surroundings (if not the normal routine.) Santiago feels like ages ago. The trip to Vina del Mar was a blast as well but I will let Pat cover that.
Yesterday we visited three wineries in the Casablanca Valley, which at 45 minutes to an hour from Valparaiso sure beat a four hour or longer ride to Colchaugua. The wineries in the region mostly grow grapes suitable for a cooler climate as the valley is influenced by its proximity to the ocean. Mostly White wine grapes and pinot noir. Because every Chilean winery needs to make Cabernet Sauvignon and carmenere, they buy those grapes from other warm region growers to produce those wines. We went to Casa del Bosque, which may have been our favorite, Bodega Re, and Emiliana. Bosque is a traditional producer, Re is a small-batch winemaker using stone vats similar to what we saw at the chicharia on the way in. Emiliana is doing the organic route. They also had a bunch of chickens roaming around; they evidently eat harmful bugs. Couldn’t get away from chickens on this leg of the trip.
Leonora and Jorge are almost like a comedy act, but we would recommend them to anyone as guides in the Valparaiso area. They showed us a lot of things beyond the normal tourist stuff and it was pretty clear they are a good team. We felt like we were saying goodbye to friends when we parted at the airport. We got to the airport very early because I think they ran out of stuff to show us, and we had a great time with them the last three days.
RE winery producing wine the old-fashioned way, by hand. They even had clay pots like the chicharia.
Organic production at Emiliana.
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