Hotel Vendimia Santa Cruz

... we arrived at Vina Montes. This is another premium Chilean producer that uses the gravity technique of winemaking. The property is stunning, owned by 4 friends that decided to try to make wine 20 years ago. It looks like their investment was quite successful. We noticed that they played Gregorian Chants to the barrels in the cellar. Our guide stated it was to help the wine develop, I ...

... through 13 wines, I only have notes on the first ten. In spite of spitting, after the tenth wine, my mouth, stained with inky purple wine, had become affixed in the position of a smile and my pen was rendered useless. My favorites include the locally-available Casa Silva Carmenere Los Lingues Gran Reserva 2007 with its blackberry, red pepper, coffee and chocolate flavors that round every corner of your mouth with a ...

... The village was nothing special and its only noteworthy attraction was its Plaza de Armas. By now we had discover that almost every town in South America has a Plaza de Armas so this was no unique attraction. We later found out the town also had a fantastic museum but if they weren't serving wine this was of no interest to us ;-). We also discovered that the town had a well equipped information centre were we managed to find a reasonably comprehensive set of maps of ...

... which was pretty good for the most part. I was going to try to fit in another winery before heading back to Valparaiso but I started getting a little nervous about being able to get a bus because today is the day before the national holiday and there should be a ton of people travelling so I decided to head to Valparaiso right after leavin Viu Manent.

... tasting. Anyways the experience was pretty cool. Chillean wineries are top notch. The have spent allot on the buildings them self and have obviously aimed the wine tasting experience in Chile squarely at the upmarket clientele. We paid through the nose for everything. Malbec and Camerniere where a few different types of grapes that we tasted. Which really didn't impress dad or I that much. There where a few though. We where the only ...

... a guard. Quite a different experience. We were in Santa Cruz over a weekend which happened to have an outdoor film festival in the square. So we had dinner at a restaurant sitting outside under a canopy of vines dripping with grapes and watching the local people mill around the square to the sights and sounds of the film on the big screen. A great atmosphere. Again we were made to feel welcome by the locals and when we had a ...

... car on the ferry over to France to pick up the wine - maybe 10 cases per trip - and then drive it back. They said that they have to pick it up themselves to avoid paying duty ($2 per bottle) on it. There was a recent lawsuit where the govt tried to tell them that that was too much wine for private personal consumption and wanted them to pay duty on it but they sued back and won - saying that they really COULD drink that much wine and the govt had no business telling people ...

... a dark house, hearing hushed squeals of excitement from a fuera (outside) - my sisters, little, big and adopted alike - dying with the anticipation of flicking on the lights to reveal ... balloons, streamers, silly string, Frutilla (Strawberry Shortcake) themed table cloth and napkins, cups with pink straws, birthday cake with ...

... Why, might you ask, are you teaching at a place where they are not interested in learning? Good question! I have no idea, but I'm certainly glad I am because that is how I was placed with my lovely familia Chilena ... and now I have an interesting story about a boy who violently attacked my co-teacher (Fermin, who deserves a blog all of his own) and was taken away by the carabineros(police ...

... grandparents). It is a big house with a lot of space, and even an upstairs, so nobody is tripping over anyone else ... unless they want to be. I knew I would be comfortable from the moment that I saw my mama. Her eyes wrinkled and she pressed me against her soft shoulder, she looked at me and said "¡Bienvenido, mi niña!" (welcome, my girl). Ahhhh, finally I knew that I found my place in Chile! You can only ...