Thu, 20 Oct 2022
While I don't pretend to know a lot about wine, I do know what I like and I have been spoiled by Jeff's acknowledged expertise in the area. As both Chile and Argentina are world-renowned for their vintages, it was inevitable that we'd try to take advantage of visiting to enjoy some special wine. As we arrived early in the day and did not meet as a group until 6:00pm, we had agreed previously to use the day to visit some wineries. Unlike in Buenos Aires, there are major and well-regarded vineyards surrounding the city of Santiago, whereas the wine-growing regions of Argentina are concentrated hours west of the capital city. There is a wine shop in Washington called Grand Cata, which we have frequented for more than five years. It specializes in wines from Iberia and South America exclusively, and Jeff is quite friendly with the owner, who comes from Chile. He agreed to help arrange a visit to a small winery, which he considers "quite the find," but making the arrangements turned out to be much more challenging than planned. As the day of our departure arrived, we still did not have confirmation that we could visit, let alone at what time. With that, we made a back-up plan. I tracked down a private driver, who we hired for the day. He was set to pick us all up from our hotel at 11:00am, and by 10:30 we still did not know if we had a confirmed tour. I ended up calling one of the other wineries mentioned by the owner of Grand Cata, and was lucky enough to get someone on the phone, not to mention someone who spoke good English. Though usually not open for tours, they agreed to host us at noon for a private showing and tasing. Around that same time, we got word that our original winery of choice was booked for 3:00pm. Our driver -- Christian -- arrived exactly on time, spoke excellent English, and was able to map out routes and timings to both establishments.
Once clear of the city, traffic was no longer a problem. We arrived at our first winery -- El Principal -- exactly on time, but were surprised to find a locked gate and security guard. She called ahead to verify our clearance to enter, and then proceeded to both check our passports AND take our temperatures, as a Covid precaution. Once through the gate, we drove down a long and winding tree-lined gravel drive, past fields of horses and manicured gardens. Our guide -- Ivana -- was waiting outside the manor house. Christian waited for us as Ivana gave us a full tour of the vineyard and wine-making facilities, followed by an intimate tasting in a subterranean cellar at a lavish dining table. They only make four wines, but each one was stellar. Before the trip, both Jeff and I toyed with the idea of bringing along our respective wine suitcases, but both elected to leave them behind as too unwieldy to manage during the trip, which was to involve two internal flights and covering lots of ground. We both assumed we could easily ship bottles home without much issue, so we very disappointed to learn that no wineries in Chile direct-ship to private individuals in the States. If we wanted to ship home, we'd have to work with a distributor on both ends, which quickly squashed those hopes. Faced with that reality, we each purchased three bottles, assuming we'd buy a few at the next winery, and making mental calculations as to how many we could fit into our luggage.
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| El Principal Winery |
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| Our Host and Guide, Ivana |
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| Barbara and Ivana Prepare for our Tasting |
We departed exactly on time and similarly arrived at the next place -- Acquitania -- at exactly 3:00pm. This was a much smaller operation, and though also gated, we had only to buzz to gain entry. No one was waiting for us, and we had to walk around a bit before found someone, albeit someone who didn't speak English. We eventually found our contact in the fields, with a couple of visitors from Portugal and Spain. She explained, and apologized, that while she heard of our visit, she had not confirmed with her boss, and she was already committed to the tour in Portuguese and Spanish. She said it was simply too much to add a third language, and seemed sincerely sorry that we'd come all that way only to be turned away.
In both reality and hindsight, none of us were really disappointed. During the drive over, we'd already realized that more wine was going to be challenge to get home, and we'd already had a great experience at El Principal, so why tempt fate? With that, Christian got us back to our hotel -- the Pullman Vitacura -- in time for a quick shower ahead of our kick-off meeting with our fellow travelers.
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