An early awakening

(Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...)
This morning we awoke to those squawking birds, and dogs barking at them. They seem to never shut up. So much for the peaceful countryside.

I hate bugs
I would hate them even more if I could see them. This morning I woke up to welts on my body and face. Mike had a couple of small bites. They itch like crazy and it is annoying to not know where they're coming from...or why they are only attacking me! Surely I can't blame the wine... I just hope that tonight I don't get another onslaught.

Life without Internet
Internet connection seems to be down here, so I am only able to post by borrowing their back-up Internet stick. I figure this is a sign to have me sit outside and enjoy the view, sun and pool. But only once we're done visiting wineries.

First winery - success!
We strolled next door to Laura Hartwig. The service was fantastic, and the wines were quite nice as well. With another host that spoke good English, we engaged in great conversation and learned that they seem to have noseeums here as well, and that they are the culprit of my attack.

I tasted their reds, paying 1000 CLP for a glass, (with the exception of the Gran Reserva, which was 2000 CLP), it was a bargain to try the tour. It started with the aromatic merlot-petit verdot blend, moving to the slightly green carmenere. Next was the cabernet sauvignon, which was a delish red blend with some smacky tannins. It ended with a blend: cab sauv, carmenere, syrah and a touch of petit verdot. It was harmony in the glass, with a stripe of acidity to make it pairable.

I highly recommend visiting this winery for its welcoming and trouble-free tasting.

Lunch
Knowing there was a restaurant at Viu Manent we headed over for some food and wine. The list of wines was recited for us, so I just ordered what seemed reasonable. Unfortunately no tasting pairings, so it was like a regular meal.

And what a meal it was. I decided to venture with a pork roll, which reminded me why I don't venture too often with food. The roll reminded me of head cheese, and luckily enough I had a big Cabernet Sauvignon to pound it down with. Oddly enough, the wine did make the food taste better...or at least beat it to an acceptable tasting point.

Mike's dish wasn't much better. It was the sea bass dish, which came unexpectedly cold. And really strong. The viogner wasn't the best match, but the wine itself was quite nice.

We decided, beyond rationale, to try desert. It was peach, and what I thought something pastry-esque. Instead we got a glass filled with peaches and some sort of grain-product (barley?). It was weird, and not what you would expect for a dessert.

All three dishes were a fail.

However, we met a Californian couple at the next table who had the steaks and raved about them. We also learned that Mike is not the only one who burnt real badly, or that I was the only one who had received these awful bites.

Misery likes company.

Second attempt - fail
We realised that we were going in the same area as the Californians, so we offered them a ride. The area of the wineries was called Apalta and my plan was to just drive and see what fate had in store for us. They had to take a cab, so they pre-booked at Casa Lapostelle. We ventured inside with them.

It was a massive winery, owned by Grand Marnier, and one of the most secure wineries we've ever seen. We passed the guard's queries and headed towards the main, empty, building. We looked around, waiting, admiring the built-into-the-hill architecture.

Finally someone came to get us to start the dreaded tour. The Americans tried to sneak us in, but when they asked for our voucher we couldn't cough up. Not really a worry for us, as we didn't want to take the tour in the first place. So we parted ways and left them with the tour.

Third attempt - fail
We kept down the road and tried to get into Montes. We had no reservation, and the only tour they had left was in Spanish. The afternoon wasn't shaping up as expected.

Fourth attempts - fail
We decided to try for the other winery with the restaurant - Casa Silva. It was by the main road and even had its own hotel. But by the time we arrived it was too late for the restaurant, and the only option was tastings by the glass. Normally this would be fine, but the tasting was either 5 USD for one glass of the crappy stuff, or 8 USD of the better (but not best) stuff.

Since I didn't want to wait AND pay for a glass of wine I really didn't want, we headed back.

We also went next door to another lesser known winery, whose sign said they were open until 6pm...but somehow they were closed at 4:30pm. We were done!

Making use of the frigobar
Once we made it back to the hotel we head into the pool to relax, cool off and enjoy the scenery. While not an awesome day with the itchy bug bites, I know that not everyday is meant to be fantastic.

So I try and divert my mind from the itchiness by sipping some nicely-chilled white wine (yea frigobar!), warm weather and hope that tomorrow morning I wake up no new welts.