Private Wine Tastings in the Maipo Valley
Almaviva / Concha y Toro / Cousino Macul
Though very little convincing, I was able to talk Ms World Traveller 73 into a day’s wine tour by private car rented from Hertz. The Hertz office was a ten minute walk down from Hotel Orly. We set out early. The lot was a compound with a large office and a maintenance bay. Although Hertz Gold 5 Star, there was no Gold Canopy here. Instead, I was invited into the office to sign a multitude of paperwork. This was apparently par for the course there – so much so that the office had black leather couches for people to wait on. I wished I had taken a photo of them.
We set out and headed for Almaviva – the joint winery effort between Concha y Toro and Baron Phillipe de Rothschild. I had made an earlier appointment. It was a bizarre sight to see mountains surrounding the vines.
Our 10 AM tour was private as no one else had booked and we had a lovely tasting of the 2008 Almaviva, which is actually cheaper for purchase in Canada than it is in Chile. The staff here, given the caliber of the wine, were very knowledgeable of all aspects of the industry.
We then went over to Concha y Toro and had the commercial tour. There were lots of busses, the whole experience reminded me of Napa Valley and the commercialism. There was a great bistro restaurant for the empanadas (were rich in onions), and a fairly average wine store for souvenirs. Ms WT went nuts in the store and came out with wine stoppers, bags and bottles of wine.
We had made a tour reservation but they didn’t find it at the check in. There was lots of tour guides so there was no problem here. They did serve Don Melachor on the tour, which is their flagship wine under their Concha y Toro label. I personally found it a bit too jammy and rough for my tastes. It reminded me of a Californian Cabernet Sauvignon that was too fruit forward.
The place was complete with a devil in the cellar.
We finished off the day at Cousino Macul. This particular winery has a few vines left in the city, but has moved most of its operation further out to get away from the development and pollution. If you wanted to do a self guided tour here (without paying for a guide in a white van) you can access this place using the Santiago Metro. Reservations are required. The wines here were quite good as well. We also had a private tour here since the other 2 on our time slot didn’t turn up.
Alpine Skiing in August – Valle Nevado, Chile.
The second portion of our Chile experience took us to Valle Nevado ski area. Having previously been a ski instructor and having been lucky enough to ski in Japan and France, I had always wanted to go down to Valle Nevado. I mean, skiing in August is a dream come true!! I researched the option of staying in Santiago and traveling up every day, but really, it was a holiday and likely a once in a life time experience. I booked a transfer through Ski Total, which we got to via the Metro at Escaula Militare. Since we were going up and back on two different dates, they charged us twice for the trips as they had to block our seats upward on our return date. I thought this was a bit of a sham, but indeed the vans were packed full without a spare seat to be had. We paid 48,000 CHP ($97 USD for two) or 12,000 CHP per person each way for transfers due to blocking seat for the return trip. I was impressed with Ski Total, they were very organized and clearly loved skiing.
The road trip up was awesome. It was a switchback road that had some 39 switchbacks. The road was about 1.5 lanes wide, and was single direction going up and down at certain times of the day. The reason was likely because the cars needed the whole road when we going around the corners.
We went for the budget accommodation at Hotel Tres Puntas given the price. I formed the opinion that Valle Nevado seems to gouge its guests. They operate on an all inclusive basis, and you can only arrive on set days. We paid over $2,000 USD for 4 days three nights for a mini ski week, worth including lodging and skiing including all food (not including alcoholic beverages) for two.
You would think for those prices, that you’d be treated like a king. Well, when we got to the check in desk, there was a massive swarm of people there waiting to get checked in. There were at least 9 people waiting with not a lot of action happening. We finally got our ski passes, changed into ski clothes and headed off to the rental department.
Pisco Sours during Apres with a view to die for:
At 4 PM, we came back and made it into our room. Remember that price that I told you about – we were horrified to learn that our room was smaller than my first apartment. I believe it to be smaller than some of the rooms I have had in the UK as a poor penniless backpacker traveler. I never though Aspen or Courchevel would have represented excellent value – but compared to this!!
It also turned out that they booked us into a double room, instead of a queen. I went back up to the front desk, waiting half an hour to speak with someone who would address the problem. The resolution was that I should take the room and they would “put” a queen in the room tomorrow. The supervisor that the clerk had to check with was hiding in an office and didn’t bother to come out.
There were two restaurants on offer at our price point. Our favorite was the Montre del Plomo buffet. It was complete with an egg scrambling station (breakfasts), a meat station parilla, appetizer buffet, pasta bar and dessert bar. The emphasis was on quantity, but the food wasn’t anything to complain about.
The skiing here was similar to the resorts that I had been to in Colorado. Not super advanced but groomed. The views were the most fantastic that I have seen anywhere in the world and even beat out Les Trois Vallees in France in my opinion.
The other benefit to staying up at the hill was that you had million dollar sunsets. Valle Nevado also put on a complimentary wine tasting on our last night. It was a strange experience to go from an outdoor hot tub at 10,000 feet to a wine tasting on the hot tub deck featuring fabulous appetizers, leather couches outside, Chilean wines, portable campfires with wood and a jazz band at sunset!! Being a bit bitter about the pricing, the small room and the fact that we felt as though we were getting fleeced, we took advantage of the free pour and downed as much as we humanly could. Needless to say, the wine was fabulous!!
Santiago Marriott
King Size Room – Advance Purchase
We returned to Santiago with ski total as planned and made the decision to walk with our rolling luggage and backpacks to the Santiago Marriot. It was the wrong decision as it was about 30 minutes walk, and having skied on our last day, we were pretty tired and hungry by the time we got to the Marriott.
We walked up and walked straight into the front desk area. The check in guy didn’t look too impressed with us. We did look like ski bums with our ski boots attached to the outside of our backpacks but what are ya gonna do? I had book the room under an advance purchase rate on Marriott.com. No upgrade was offered despite being Marriott Silver. There wasn’t any assistance with the bags, even though we could have used it, and I didn’t stick around because by this time, we were starved.
The room itself was very large in the center block facing north. We didn’t have any guests beside us. The included free breakfast was satisfactory, but nothing exciting. It did include an omelet station and all the bacon and sausage that you could want. The restaurant did seem full of consultants on the circuit.
The desk had a fabulous multi charging plug in station which I had never seen before.
The hotel was situated next to Parque Arauco, which was a large American styled mall with lots of restaurants, including Tony Roma’s, TGIF and the like. It made for a very non Latin American experience. While convenient, it made me decide that I actually preferred the Hotel Orly as the neighborhood had much more charm and personality. However, this location may be what you are looking for if you’re looking for a business hotel with stuff available without inconveniencing yourself.
A downside of the hotel, it was indeed a brisk 18 minute walk to the nearest Manaque Metro, which can make for a long sightseeing day if you are headed into town without a taxi. On the last breakfast of the day, our waiter gave us a complimentary sealed bottle of wine to take home as a souvenir, which was a nice touch. It made for a memorable experience, if not a super exciting one.