The Vineyards of Chile’s Colchagua Valley
There are lovely wineries all across Chile, but many of the best wine-producing valleys and vineyards are a short drive away from Santiago in the Colchagua (“kol-chag-waa”) Valley.
A suffering vine makes for a tastier wine.
Home to Francis Mallman’s Fuegos de Alpata Restaurant, Viña Montes is an absolute must for your trip to Colchagua Valley. The angel in the Viña Montes logo represents the premium nature of their wine in the world of Chilean wines – it flies above the rest. The sommelier will gives you an explanation of the sustainable process by which their wine is produced, more about that here.
During your tasting, make sure to have at least one Carménère – a type of grape that has established itself in Chile as Malbec has in Argentina. In Colchagua Valley, you’ll find mostly red varietals, with whites or rosés more limited because of the climate.
Meaning “fires of Apalta (the region name),” lunch at Fuegos de Alpata will leave a burning memory on your taste-buds. Nestled in the hills of the surrounding vineyards, the greens of the vines and the blues of the clear skies are outstandingly vibrant. While the menu does rotate, a few favorites from our list trip included a meat-stuffed empanada, New York Strip with cauliflower, blueberries, and lime compote, octopus and mussel paella with charred lemon, paired with a Viña Montes Carménère.
Viña las Niñas
Here we arrived impromptu, and to be honest I hadn’t heard of this winery before driving by it’s rather simple signage out front. What caught our eye was a shiny metallized structure standing blazing in the sun amongst rows of green vines.
Naturally this is where Viña las Niñas makes it’s wine, and out back there is a small tasting room fit for no more than six at a time. This makes for an intimate experience with the sommelier — something we’d missed at every other winery visit, and find less and less in Napa Valley back home. The som really, deeply cared about the wine, as well as what notes, smells, tastes, images, and so on the wine conjured for us.
This wine is organically made, and like most wine in the Calchagua region, it’s dry harvested.
Viña Laura Hartwig
We arrived late in the day near the end of the wine tasting hours, leaving us to be the last ones on the property and lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some local studs practicing their polo.
The story behind the winery was interesting, and our sommelier was willing to share her knowledge. She also had a really cool tongue ring.
