One more crack at wine country

We left the Canyon early in the morning to make our way back to wine country and the outskirts of Santiago.

Concha y Toro
It was due time that I finally did a wine tour, after avoiding it for so long. This is the biggest winery in Chile and makes some pretty darn fine wine, so I just had to give it a visit. Since the only way was by tour, I buckled and became a full-fledged tourist. (Thankfully our B&B was only five minutes away, so Mike dropped me off, so he didn't have to suffer the wait.)

Walking in, it was a mega-tourist trap, drawing in people from all around the world. I also learned that Concha indeed has a restaurant and does some tasting flights and serves by the glass. Bugger!

But I was stuck on the tour, watching the cheesy intro video, roaming the extensive property grounds, and ending with a visit to the Casillero de Diablo cave. I ignored the cheesy Disney-like storytelling for the tourist, and enjoyed the cooler temperatures. Have I been meant to live among the barrels and bottles in oh so perfect temperatures? Hmm, such a life couldn't be bad...

The tour ended with a visit from a "sommelier", who guided us through their Marques line. Knowing how to taste wine, I immediately started my ritual. Suddenly I was in grade school and we were to observe, smell and taste the wine as a group. Ah yes, this is why I hate tours and prefer tastings.

Of course I don't mind talking about the wine I'm drinking, but do so in free-flowing conversation and with less condescending attitude. The funniest part was when a Scottish gent of the group asked what the bottle cost. The sommelier snapped, saying that asking price was like asking a lady's age. And that when you take a lady out, you go to the restaurant focusing on quality, and not being concerned about prices. We were to focus on experiencing the quality of what was in the glass, and nothing else.

Now maybe I'm too much of a Winnipegger, but the price of the bottle has a huge impact on the way I rate a wine. There's nothing better than a wine that tastes like it should cost $30, when instead it costs $15. I told this to my fellow sh*t-disturber and we had some good laughs at how the sommelier was full of bunk.

The "gift" from the tour was one of the glasses we sampled with. While a nice gesture, and certainly more practical if you're not traveling home by plane, it poses quite the quandary for packing.

To make the tour more disappointing, one of the motivators was a mini cheese-board that could be creatively taken as a better parting gift. (I had learned this from friends who went on the tour last year.) Well I'm gathering too many of these wandered off as gifts, as we were served with boring white plates instead. Double bugger!

By the end of it all I felt slightly dirty from the whole experience. I also confirmed that wine tours are the root of all wine evil. Tour the grounds with a glass of wine in your hand and enjoy expressing what you're experiencing. The rest is just filler.

Winding down the afternoon
After the tour Mike came to pick me up and rescue me from the experience. Next to him was some strange lady who started to come towards me for the usual kiss-greeting. Being Canadian my eyes widened with the thoughts of "who the heck are you", quickly backing up. We all had a laugh when I was introduced to our host for the last couple of days in Chile!

We then had lunch at Concha y Toro with a couple of other Canadians on the tour. Of course what I wanted to order was not on the menu, and we were informed that this is quite a common thing in Chile. The advice was to ask before sitting down whether they had what I wanted on the menu. Smart advice from a only fish-eating vegetarian in a put-meat-in-everything country!

Wine tourism
Going back to our B&B, we relaxed a bit, and I asked our host what she knew about the wineries all around us. She told us that very few receive visitors, and those that do only do tours. I was heart-broken and frustrated with the wine tourism once again.

At first blush it seemed that Chile was more advanced than Argentina when it came to wine tourism. But now I've learned that it is not necessarily the case. Both seem to be underdeveloped and support middlemen tour guides. There are two easier options for touring: you can go through a wine touring company, who will set everything up for you; or you can hire a taxi-driver of sorts who can do the same on a smaller scale.

I tried contacting some wineries to set up a visit, but only one ever replied (Casas del Bosque, which was the most visitor-friendly by far.) Now granted I did a lot more drop-in tries than contacting, but as anyone can imagine, it is vacation and it is hard enough to plan your places of stay without having to plan your entire day in such detail.

Planning the last day
So with all wineries closed by 4pm, and Concha y Toro eating up all my time, we just sat back, watched TV and turned our brains off for the day. Discussing plans for tomorrow, we were informed that very few wineries will be open for Saturday.

Mike laughed at how we were at Cascada during the week, when everything was closed (but throngs of tourists were away). And now we're here during the weekend, when everything is closed again. There is something to be said for having the timing of the throngs of tourists.