Part One of My Recent Trip To Chilean Wine Country.

I had never been to Chile before and had no expectation toward the country, climate, or the people but I was pleasantly surprised. We stared our wine touring in The Maipo Valley. It could not have been more perfect 28 degrees almost every day and not a cloud in sight. The Valley is about one hour south of Santiago. Its distinguishing mark is vines which cover the countryside row upon row. The first winery we stopped at was Concha y Toro. You drive through the gate and give your reservation number to a stationed guard who then allows you to walk into the grounds to a central garden area. There you wait for your tour guide. We had asked for an English tour and when the tour guide started to speak in broken hard to define English I new we were not going to get the technical tour I was hoping for. The tour started with a walk through the gardens and down to the field to discuss the vines. The tour guide told us how the hot day temperatures with the Andes Mountains cooling the valley at night were ideal for growing the vines. The mountains also help with irrigation by bringing water to the valley. When one of the guest asked why they had roses planted at the end of each row of vines she explained that at one time they would use the drooping leaf of the bush as a indicator of when to water the vines. Well I have heard many explanations but when I told this one to a wine maker he just laughed and said that was silly and that roses are purely there for aesthetics. At the end of a very short tour I had asked to return to the garden to shoot a couple of photographs. My tour guide said we could go back to the garden but she would have to walky-talky the security guards and let them know we were coming. I found all this security a little strange and it only made me want to find out who was behind the closed wall. I found out that Vina Concha Y Toro is a corporation trading on the stock exchange and has a market value of US$250 million and there is one family member still on the board. Concha y Toro is the countries largest wine exporter. On the tour I was told about all the different product brand names. In the Cabernet Sauvignon category there is Trio, Sunrise, Marques de Casa, Don Melchor, Casillero del Diablo, and Walnut Crest. If you want to try one of the products I recommend the Trio or Casillero del Diablo to start with. To arrange a tour you can call the bodega at 556-7882. Then we were off to our next bodega, Portal Del Alto. This privately owned vineyard is in my humble opinion the best wine producer in Chile. The wine maker Alejandero Hernandez is a professor of enology and viticulture at the Catholic University of Chile and the only non-European on the International Wine Organization based in Paris. He proudly stands behind his product producing high quality wines at an affordable price. For me there is no bigger thrill than to find a wine with a reasonable price point. The vineyard in Buin is one of four owned by Mr. Hernandez in Chile. The Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 has a gold medal award and is well worth buying. I have praised this vineyard before and they never cease to impress me. I know that back home in Vancouver a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon is $14.55. I asked why their grapes we grown in such vertical narrow rows compared to other vineyards. The other vineyards had their grapes growing horizontal to the sky like a umbrella. I learned that Portal Del Alto grows their vines up three lateral wires to allow for more specific pruning. This system allows them to limit the number of grape bunches created and obtains a higher quality grape. I left with almost every variety Portal Del Alto bottles and one that I did not expect. A delicious Late Harvest that I am going to share with my close friends back home. Portal Del Alto can be visited by calling Roberto Munoz at 821-3363 four or five days in advance. In the next couple of weeks I will be continuing my thoughts on my Chilean wine adventure, as I will be writing about my tour to Santa Rita.