Wine, mainly

Wine barrels

Fermentation vats
Thursday 10th January

Having seen most of Valparaiso and Vina, we decided to take an organised excursion to the Casablanca valley and the vineyards. Our guide was an ex-Naval captain from the Pinochet era. His political views were not perhaps the same as ours and he didn’t seem to think much of “leftistas”, particularly women. He explained that one his classmates was now in gaol for atrocities in the Pinochet era.

We were accompanied by four Canadians from Ottawa, who were over for a wedding.

The first vineyard we visited was Vinamar, which was laid out in pristine rows with roses at the end. There was a grand reception building where we eat lunch overlooking the vines and sampling their delicious wines.

After that we visited a Croatian run vineyard, where they make only organic wines. It was built into the side of the hill, and was a much smaller operation. We only stopped for a degustation.

Then it was back to the Hotel Ultramar to await our taxi.

This is the view from the balcony of the hotel - our last of the Pacific for a while, but hopefully not too long!!