Our driver and guide today is Francisco, co-owner of ‘Colchagua Wine Tours’. Originally from Santa Cruz he spent 30 years in the DC/Virginia area as a techie and returned to Chile with his American wife and founded their wine-touring company.
We’re doing one of their canned tours which includes three of Colchagua’s ‘must-do’ wineries. First up is Viu Manent, founded in 1935. The tour included a carriage ride through the vineyard, a tour of the wine cellar, and a tasting of their ‘ICON’ wines. Good stuff
Next up is the ‘Clos Apalta’ winery in the highly acclaimed ‘Apalta’ region of Colchagua. Clos Apalta was founded by one of the French Lapostolle family, owners of the ‘Grand Marnier’ empire. Current corporate ownership is cloudy with the ‘Lapostolle’ line being spun into a separate winery. The Clos Apalta facilities and wine are among the best we amateurs have ever experienced. They’ve won ‘wine of the year’ and a 2014 offering scored 100 ‘James Suckling’ points. The facility has six floors and is designed to use gravity rather than mechanical processes. Tall wooden posts in the rooftop garden frame views across the Colchagua Valley. Incredible.
Lunch is at the ‘Fuegos de Apalta’ restaurant associated with the Montes Winery. Francisco secured us a great table in the middle of the vineyards. The meal is special. The chef, Francis Mallmann, Is evidently world famous with restaurants in all the world capitals.
We finished up with a tasting at the Mirador (Overlook) lodge at Ventisquero winery. Amazing views and wine. The tasting room sits near the top of the peaks surrounding the Apalta Valley. A great way to finish a fine day of tasting.
D.
We are touring in the Colchagua valley today. Francisco, our driver/guide has developed relationships with many of the wineries in the valley and he has put together a tour with several of the not to miss places. We have mostly private tours and tastings scheduled for the entire day. The first stop at Viu Manent involves a horse drawn carriage ride through the vineyards (and a very strange step system to get into the wagon). Jose Miguel is our guide through the vineyards, cellar and tasting. Unlike other tastings, Jose instructs us to tell him when to stop pouring. We try to exercise restraint, since this is the first stop of the day.
The Clos Apalta winery has a beautiful structure that reminds one of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The wines were excellent and we met a couple from France and a young lady from Ann Arbor/Holland Michigan, now in Patagonia.
We have a lovely lunch at Fuegos de Apalta (fuegos – literally is fire) with a wine pairing for each course. I had a seafood crostini to start followed by a wonderful wild mushroom risotto. Dick started with an empanada and had some of the best short ribs with fettucine I’ve ever tasted.
A nice finish at Ventisquero winery, we are finally starting to see some white wines.
Lunch was more than enough, back to the hotel for the evening.
M
