Casablanca Valley wines
Apr 2, 2017, 8:38 pm
#1
formerly known as RK7
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Grass Valley SMF
Programs: Many
Posts: 720
Casablanca Valley wines
We just returned from a month in South America with the main part being a 15 day cruise from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires. We stayed in Vina del Mar for three days prior to our cruise and wanted to pick up some wine for our cruise and so we ventured out to Casablanca Valley (via the German Pirate) for a quick tour and buying expedition. We visited several wineries and the three that stood out were Casas de Bosques, Indomita, and Emiliana.
We tend towards Chards and Pinots and Casas de Bosques had some outstanding examples (in their Gran Reserves) that came in at less than US$20 and would definitely fetch more than that in the US. We actually bought there without tasting because they were the only winery that wanted us to go through the whole dog and pony show of the winery and tour, etc. and I didn't want to waste time on that so we just bought blind and it worked well.
The other wineries wanted to do the tour thing but did allow us to just taste a few wines and bought from those. Indomita and Emiliana are both very nice wineries and we found some nice Chards (and a nice Rhone blend at Emiliana) for US$7-$12.
We took 14 bottles on our cruise and had one every night with dinner. All were well worth the $18 corkage that we had to pay on the ship.
We tend towards Chards and Pinots and Casas de Bosques had some outstanding examples (in their Gran Reserves) that came in at less than US$20 and would definitely fetch more than that in the US. We actually bought there without tasting because they were the only winery that wanted us to go through the whole dog and pony show of the winery and tour, etc. and I didn't want to waste time on that so we just bought blind and it worked well.
The other wineries wanted to do the tour thing but did allow us to just taste a few wines and bought from those. Indomita and Emiliana are both very nice wineries and we found some nice Chards (and a nice Rhone blend at Emiliana) for US$7-$12.
We took 14 bottles on our cruise and had one every night with dinner. All were well worth the $18 corkage that we had to pay on the ship.
Apr 4, 2017, 11:37 pm
#2
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 254
I've been really getting into Chilean wines recently. Not precisely the Casablanca valley, but quite nearby, my favorite winery in Chile is Matetic, in San Antonio. I also think that many many Chilean wineries are delivering quite good quality product at amazingly reasonable prices. Other wineries I have been impressed by are Morande and Errazuriz, as well as the three you cited.