CHILE: Vineyards and Wine Tasting in the Colchagua Valley

Wine country is always beautiful with rolling hills and a warm dry climate.

It is the climate and topography that grapes thrive on.

We love it too.

So it is no wonder that we love visiting areas with vineyards.

Chile is world famous for their wines.

There is no way we could go to Chile and not check out the beautiful scenery and vineyards – for purely educational purposes.

 

The Colchagua Valley is one of the most famous wine regions in Chile, located about 150–200 km south of Santiago. We went for a bike ride to enjoy the pretty scenery. 

The Colchagua Valley sits between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, creating an ideal climate for growing grapes—warm sunny days, cool nights, and fertile soils. Colchagua Valley is especially known for red wines, particularly Carmenère, Chile’s signature grape.

Here is a little interesting story to bring up at your next Cocktail party (otherwise known as Cocktail Party Trivia) .…. The Carménère grape was originally from the Bordeaux region in France. But in the late 19th century a vine pest called Phylloxera destroyed most of Europe’s vineyards, and Carménère nearly disappeared from France.

Before that disaster, vine cuttings had been brought to Chile by European growers. For more than 100 years, Chilean vineyards mistakenly believed their Carménère vines were actually Merlot because the plants look very similar. In 1994, a French ampelographer discovered that Chile had been growing the nearly extinct Carménère all along.

 Chile avoided the vine pest Phylloxera largely because of its natural geographic barriers. The Andes Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, the Atacama Desert, and southern ice fields isolated the country and prevented the pest from spreading there. Because of this, Chile still grows many grapevines on their original roots, unlike most vineyards in the world.

It may be for sale, it may be beautiful, but, no, we are not buying a vineyard in Chile.

Being south of the equator, March is harvest season. 

Laura Hartwig is a small boutique vineyard. They bring in a portable bottling machine to get their bottling done efficiently and without taking as much risk transporting their wine to a bottling plant.

We had to stop and taste some of their wines, for comparison purposes. 

Since we were in the area, we also checked out Montes Vineyard. After their grapes are harvested they use an elevator to take the grapes to their rooftop where they sort them. Something we have never seen, nor heard of, before.

They then drop them down a chute to the huge vats below using gravity for a gentle crush.

This winery believes in Feng Shai so they age their barrels in a "chapel" that plays Gregorian chants to create vibrations that are conducive to wine aging. 

Now tell me, seriously, how could we pass up on an opportunity to taste those wines? 

For educational purposes.

Honestly!