I hadn’t felt a lot of inspiration to write about some of my previous travels because of covid and the inability to travel but today is the one year anniversary of my trip to Antarctica and inspiration hit! Before my Antarctica trip, I spent three weeks in Chile. Since it was a long trip, I’m going to break it up and write different posts about the wine country, Valparaiso, San Pedro de Atacama (the desert), and Torres Del Paine (Patagonia).
I had an overnight flight from Washington DC to Santiago, arriving about 9AM local time. There were a lot of protests and some riots happening in Santiago at this time, so I decided to skip Santiago. In general, I’m not really a big city person so probably wouldn’t have spent a lot of time in Santiago anyway. Since Chilean wine is my favorite, I decided I wanted to spend some time in wine country.
There are wine regions all over Chile and since Chile is the longest country in the world, I couldn’t visit all of them. I chose to visit two of the regions—Casablanca Valley (close to Valparaiso) and Maipo (close to Santiago).
Casablanca Valley was up first. It is best known for its crisp white wines, notably made from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Casablanca Valley's first vineyards were planted in the 1980s during the revitalization of the Chilean wine industry. Expansion of vineyards around the industrial town of Casablanca followed, and vines now dominate the valley's landscape, even if a lack of water for irrigation (and restrictive local laws relating to this) have delayed vineyard planting.
Since time was limited in visiting wineries, I started right away! Straight off the flight and right after picking up our rental car, first stop was the Vina Casas Del Bosque. One of the reasons I picked this one is because they do a lunch and wine pairing and of course we were hungry after the long flight. I also read they have a great tour in a red wagon but I was not quite ready to do tours right after the flight. We were the first visitors at the winery, ready to eat and drink. They had a really good four course pairing surrounded by beautiful plants and vineyards.
After the visit, it was time to check in to our hotel. I wanted to pick a hotel located between Valparaiso, Casablanca Valley and Santiago so I went with one called Hotel Boutique BC. I loved the hotel! It was a small hotel with only 20 rooms, a pool that looks like its filled with red wine, wood fired hot tubs, and a sauna. They also serve meals there which we had a few times.
The owner was amazing also. My suitcase wheel was broken when we I picked it up at baggage claim. I was dismayed, thinking about having to lug it around Chile for 3 weeks with a broken wheel before continuing on to Antarctica so I asked the owner if he knew anywhere I could take it who could maybe repair it. He told me to take everything out and bring it to him. He got his toolbox out and fixed my wheel for me! Then later in our stay, we wanted to use the wood fired hot tub, which has to be set up before use since they literally need to get wood and light it up to heat the hot tub. It was after hours and he went and set it up for us. I also asked him was thoughts on the riots in Chile. There is a lot to it, but the riots were sparked by a raise in metro fees. Chilean residents make an average of $27,000 a year and things like housing and transportation have grown increasingly more expensive so a lot of residents can’t afford to live. The owner said that while he didn’t agree with the destruction during the riots, he understood that was how the younger generation felt they could create change, so he ultimately supported them. I also noticed that it was very smoggy. I asked him it was always like that. He said that the pollution was from the Australian brushfires. It had made its way to South America. Things like that make you realize just how small the world actually is.
The next day we went to Valparaiso, but I will write about that in a different post. The following day was Casablanca Vineyard wine tasting day. The first stop was at a beautiful vineyard called Vina Indomita. It looks like a castle on a hill and is surrounded by the vineyards. Unfortunately, the wine wasn’t very good at all and they weren’t very accommodating. Still worth going for the views.
I wanted to try more of a boutique winery, so we went to an organic winery called Emiliana. It was situated in an intimate setting of trees and animals and we were able to have a picnic while sampling our wines. We had outside at a picnic table and were brought samples as we had a picnic lunch. I loved all the wines and the vibe here.
Unfortunately we had a two hour drive still ahead so decided to stop visiting vineyards. We drove to the Sun Monticello Hotel and Casino, a large western hotel. Once you get away from Valparaiso and Santiago, there aren’t a lot of options for hotels. And when booking hotels, I tried to avoid Santiago in case there were still riots going on. It was a nice hotel but most of the restaurants were closed. We went through the casino but didn’t play any games.
The next day we drove into the Maipo Valley, known for its red wines and views of the Andes mountains. We had reservations at Concho Y Toro vineyard to do a tour. The grounds were stunning! The best part is the cellar, though, known as the Casillero del Diablo, or devil’s cellar! They have a light show about the cellar being haunted and show a video about the history. Definitely the most fun winery tour I’ve experienced.
We stopped by Vina el Principal but they were closed. Someone came out and offered to open for us but we didn’t want to impose so continued on to Vina Haras de Pirque. The views were incredible! We had lunch and sampled some of the wines. Then we went back to our hotel to get ready to fly to the desert the next morning.
Overall, the views in both Casablanca Valley and Maipo Valley were so beautiful with the Andes mountains and beautiful vineyards. Casablanca Valley was a little more intimate with less people. Still, South African wine country remains my favorite in views, wine, low key vibe. Really don’t see any wine region topping it.
I still plan on writing posts about Valparaiso, the desert, and Patagonia so stay tuned.
