At 9:15 a.m. on Friday March 14, we were picked up by Uncorked Wine Tours for an all-day tour of three wineries and lunch in the Casablanca Valley, about an hour west of Santiago. The Casablanca Valley is a cool weather wine area and the newest area for wine in the country. Sauvingnon Blanc and Chardonnay were introduced in the Casablanca Valley in 1985 by Pablo Morande.
The first winery we visited was the Kingston Family Vineyards. This winery was started in 1998 and forms a small part of a much larger farm owned by the Kingston Family. In the early 1900s, a mining engineer, C.J. Kingston came from Michigan, U.S. to Chile looking for gold While he never found gold, in 1916, he established a cattle ranch in the Casablanca Valley, about 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Today, the farm is still in operation, and his great-granddaughter Courtney Kingston runs the winery. She also introduced two red wines- a Pinot Noir and a Syrah in addition to a Sauvignon Blanc. The winemakers (Byron Kosage and Evelyn Vidal) have considerable experience in California. The winery is a small lot operation consisting of 350 acres within the larger family farm. The tasting room and production facility is small but fits beautifully into the landscape. Most of the wine is exported.
The weather was quite cool and there was a lot of fog which only cleared at about 2:00 p.m. It reminded us of San Francisco weather.
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| Outside of Kingston Family Vineyards |
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| Beautiful vineyards and rolling hills |
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| Francisco, our guide from the winery, showing us the terroir |
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| Alano with the grapes
We passed one lot where they had decided to change some pinot noir grapes to chardonnay and grafted the new vines on the old ones.
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Our first wine tasting outside
The first wine we tasted was their sauvignon blanc called Cariblanco. It was very crisp and drinkable. All the wines are inspired by family horses' names from long ago. Cariblanco means "white face".
The first wine we tasted was their sauvignon blanc called Cariblanco. It was very crisp and drinkable. All the wines are inspired by family horses' names from long ago. Cariblanco means "white face".
Alano and I with our first glass of wine
We were extremely fortunate to meet Courtney Kingston who has just moved to the winery for a year with her family (she used to commute between California and Chile). She is a real dynamo and visionary behind the winery. She has had considerable success with her red wines, which are excellent.
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| Courtney Kingston |
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| Box with logo-- an architectural detail from the family farm house built in the 1880s
We had a wine-tasting inside the building. We sampled Tobiano, a Pinot Noir and then Lucero, a Syrah. The Tobiano was the hands down winner and it turned out to be our favourite wine of the day.
  
Wines and awards
We then went to Bodegas Re, a small vineyard, run by the son of Pablo Morande. The vineyard was just started in 2008. The concept is an interesting one- they want to REcreate, REinvent and REveal ancient wines and practices. The winery uses clay pots for fermentation. The building is quite beautiful and sustainable.
 
Outside of winery
More RE's: REvelation, REcreation and REvolution
Looks like something Lucy from I Love Lucy would have liked for grape crushing
Pino Noir grapes
The winery also had small rooms where they are fermenting fruit for fruit liquors and also making aged balsamic vinegars. |
Raoul with fermenting fruit for liquors
It was fascinating to see the clay pots used for the wine-making. There were also some new models made of concrete with a clay cover. Very interesting approach.
Clay pots
New concrete container covered with clay
We then had a wine-tasting of five wines. The winery focuses on blends-- all with very clever names. We first started with "Pinotel", a mix of Pinot Noir and Moscatel; then Chardonnoir (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir); Syranoir (Syrah and Pinot Noir); and Cabergnan (Cabernet Sauvingon and Carignan). We also tasted a Carignan. We liked the Pinotel and Cabergnan the best. It will be very interesting to follow the development of these wines.
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| RE Chardonnoir |
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| RE Cabergnan |
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| RE Pinotel |
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| Cabergnan--rated 94 |
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| At the tasting
We then went to HOUSE- Casa del Vino for lunch followed by a tour and more wine. House is now owned by the Belen Group consisting of a number of wineries, four from Chile and one from Argentina. There is also an olive oil producer involved.
Stefan outside Casa del Vino
We had an excellent wine and food pairing lunch. The food was superb, the wines less so, but it was a lovely setting and a great meal.
Ceviche
Conger ( a lovely white fish) and traditional Chilean vegetable stew
Allan had beef cheeks with a mushroom sauce on top of potatoes. I had beef cheeks with a light pesto (no dairy).
 
The wine store featured wines from all the owner wineries, some of which we had tasted over lunch.
After lunch, we went on a tour of the winery on site and tasted two other wines.
Our guide in the adjoining winery
Photo of building where we had lunch from vineyard. Note roses used as a natural pesticide
We also saw the different type of barrels used for fermentation: traditional oak; stainless steel; and "concrete eggs".
  
Stainless steel container
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The wine produced on site was called Tiraziz--the name based on a Persian princess and play on the name Shiraz.
Tirazis with wood-cut designed labels
After our late lunch and tour, we headed back to Santiago and were dropped at our apartment at about 6:00 p.m. We went for a long walk and then picked up a couple of empanadas for dinner from Empanadas Zunino, a bakery near the Central Market that has operated since the 1930s.
Waiting for empanadas
It was a great tour. Chilean wine and wine tourism are a major industry here. Many of the wineries were just getting ready for harvest, which can carry on until May. Growing grapes in the cool Casablanca Valley is a real challenge. The producers were hit by a bad frost at the beginning of the spring this past year. We were reminded of the challenges faced by our Niagara wineries.
Dear Toby,
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to reach you, because Great Wine Capitals (www.greatwinecapitals.com) has created a Guest Bloggers Contest and I think you will be interest.
Please write me to bzamora@casablancavalley.cl
Kind regards,