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Siblings in Santiago

April 30, 2016 By Lauren 6 Comments

We started off our two weeks in Chile in Valparaiso, hiking around the city’s famous hills and up Cerro la Campana in the footsteps of Darwin. After all that effort, it was time for some wine. So we next headed into Chile’s most famous wine area called the Colchagua Valley. This area is famous for its red wines, especially the Chilean varietal known as Carménère.

Carménère actually has a fascinating story. It grew in the Bordeaux region of France since ancient times, but a crop disease in the mid-19th century wiped out all of the Carménère from Europe. It was thought to be extinct until only about 20 years ago when it was discovered that the Merlot that some wineries in Chile were selling wasn’t Merlot at all. It was in fact Carménère, which some growers had imported from Europe in the 19th century.

We were eager to try this fabled grape and so booked reservations at some of the valley’s best wineries. In contrast to places like Macedonia and even New Zealand, the wine tourism industry in Chile is surprisingly very developed. Most places require you to have reservations, pay around $20 for a tour, and give you a few small pours as a tasting. Accordingly, we were pretty picky about which wineries we would visit. And so we started out with a visit to the picturesque winery of Montes. We were visiting Chile during autumn time, so many of the vines were starting to change colors. The scenery was the best thing about our visit to Montes, however, as the wines would turn out to be our least favorite in the valley.

Most wine regions we’ve visited are dusty brown and bland
But the Colchagua Valley was a stunning exception
We were especially lucky to visit in autumn when the vines started to change colors
Lindsey sampling some Montes wines
Although these wines were our least favorite, it was hard not to have an increasingly better time as the tasting went on
Montes plays a soundtrack of chanting monks in its barrel room… they claim the vibrations help the wine better absorb flavors
She’s the younger (and stronger) one
Though we were both born equally goofy

The next morning we awoke to drizzle, but the rain ended up being a boon for our winery visits that day. We were the only ones on our tour of MontGras Winery, and our lovely tour guide Maira took us on the most interactive winery tour I’ve ever experienced. We went into the vineyards to try different grapes and compare the shape of the leaves (the Carménère leaf is shaped like a cat’s face, according to Maira). We felt the spongy bark of a cork tree. We stuck our nose into a barrel of wine and tried to guess its vintage (we all thought it was either Cabernet Sauvignon or Carménère…. and found we were way off base when she told us it was Sauvignon Blanc). We even got to stick our mouths under the spigot of one of the wine tanks to try a taste (a privilege that anyone on a brewery or winery tour has dreamed of doing). Our tour ended with a four wine tasting and snack pairing around a roaring fire. Maira and one of the winery owners ended up bringing us multiple bottles to try after the official tasting was over. The atmosphere was so cozy, the people so gracious, and the wine so delicious, we could have stayed around the fireplace for hours.

We were pretty mesmerized by the fire at MontGras
Seeing a cork tree for the first time
Trying to guess the varietal… and failing miserably
Wine straight from the tap

But we still had another winery to go to before tapping out for the day. Unlike the boutique bodega of MontGras, Viu Manent is a much larger operation that also boasts two great restaurants on its grounds. But sadly, we found its size and the personal experience we received to be inversely proportional. After forking over our money, we were rushed through a tasting of seven wines in less than 20 minutes. Thankfully, since it wasn’t busy, the guide ended up letting us linger over our glasses after the official portion was over. Although we had a few exceptional wines (including two that sold in the wine shop for over $100), we much preferred MontGras and Emiliana in Casablanca Valley thanks to the warmer experience.

A formidable wine tasting at Viu Manent
Our motley crew
I am imagine myself saying here, “Why are you making us drink this so fast?!”

At this point, we were pretty “wined out” and ended up skipping some of the area’s other well-known wineries. [But if you are in the area, Lapostolle is supposed to be fabulous]. It was on to Santiago for the last part of our trip and some big-city sights.

Except we were pretty wiped out from our sightseeing and hiking in Valparaiso and all the hard work of wine tasting in the Colchagua Valley. It didn’t help matters that we had the best Airbnb of our trip yet here, which even came with a friendly cat on loan from the owners that lived downstairs. We spent our first full day in Santiago in our pajamas and never left the house once. In our defense, it was also the premiere night for Game of Thrones (which we were able to watch—with Spanish subtitles—thanks to HBO’s free weekend promo).

My best friend for four days in Santiago

Lindsey, Kelly, and Chris are pretty laidback travelers, and I had already seen a good amount of the city on two prior visits to Santiago. That said, we still managed to squeeze some minor sightseeing into our remaining two full days in the city. We walked to some of the city’s markets, had some fantastic empanadas, and visited the powerful Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, which covers the country’s dark times under the Pinochet dictatorship (which was as recently as 1973-1990).

Taking a much needed break from wine at Bar The Clinic in Santiago
Running the gauntlet of fish and restaurant hawkers at Mercade Central
Checking out the city’s Plaza de Armas
And the street artists that set up shop there
Walking into some of the city’s less-touristy areas like Barrio Brasil
Taking some educational time at the museum
Finding empanadas that are the real deal at Zunino
So good people line up to buy its empanadas that only come in two flavors
We thought both the cheese and meat versions were fantastic
Outside of empanadas, we were underwhelmed by Chilean cuisine… which seemed to consist of various combinations of steak, french fries, and eggs
Although we did finding an awesome barbershop…
…slash restaurant at Peluquería Francesca
And were able to try their awesome mango sours

We also got to see one of my sister’s friends from high school who married a Chilean man and lives in Santiago. It was great to catch up with Sarah over lunch, and I appreciated a momentary break from serving as the sole translator for the group. We also were able to track down one of my sister’s favorite things—video game bars—and Sarah schooled us in a blast-from-the-past game of Mario Kart.

Sarah took us on a tour of her super hip neighborhood of Bellas Artes
She said the Mapocho River that runs through Santiago is usually always this brown color (though that doesn’t stop couples from locking their love to its bridges)
Lauren, Lindsey, Kelly, and Sarah in Santiago
Kelly capturing an intense moment in GoldenEye 007
Our farewell dinner at Liguria
Goodbye to the lands of pisco sours

With our most recent two-week trip now in the books, we found Chile to be very pleasant. Most of us preferred the quirkier, more colorful Valparaiso to the larger, busier capital of Santiago, and we agreed that our favorite day (that some of us are still recovering from…) was our hike up Cerro La Campana. There is no doubting the wine here is fantastic, though the food does leave something to be desired (and makes us miss Peru). Although Chile as a travel destination probably falls somewhere in the middle of the places we’ve visited on our RTW trip, the chance to spend nearly two weeks with my sister before she loses her life to residency for a few years was unbeatable.

Filed Under: Adventures Tagged With: Chile, South America

Comments

  1. Mary McCausland says

    April 30, 2016 at 8:07 am

    Loved your write up on your time in Chile. What are we all going to read a month from now when you’re back?! Going to miss traveling vicariously through you!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      April 30, 2016 at 4:07 pm

      We will have to write about our adventures reuniting with all of you!

      Reply
  2. Sara says

    April 30, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    Looks like a great time! Love the fall colors. 🙂

    Looking forward to your return, and hopefully a rundown on the Motor City’s finest cuisine of coney dogs and the likes!

    Reply
  3. Alison says

    May 1, 2016 at 6:27 am

    Best virtual adventure EVER for me….Thank you for sharing it with us! Love You! xoxoxo

    Reply
  4. Jill Costie says

    May 2, 2016 at 10:15 am

    What will I do when you come back to the USA. I love these! But I will be happy happy to see you!!!

    Reply
  5. Clare Pierce says

    May 2, 2016 at 8:47 pm

    Thanks for the descriptive passages… I so look forward to your postings!!

    Reply

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