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Since I had decided that I wasn't going to go to Mendoza and the famous wine region of Argentina I was glad of the opportunity to go on a trip to a vineyard with a nice group from the hostel (thanks for organising it Annet!) It was a fun afternoon. We got the metro out of the city (where you can actually see the mountains!) then a taxi to the 'Concha y Toro' vineyard. We did the tour which included extra wine tasting with a sommelier which turned out to be a good choice :-) It was a lovely sunny afternoon so we enjoyed a stroll by the vineyards and the tour through the cellars where there were many barrels of wine. 1 barrel holds 30 bottles of wine! We also went into the devil's cellar which is where the 'Casillero de Diablo' Cabernet Sauvignon gets its name from. Legend has it that there is a devil in there…the rumour was started by the owner to stop the local people breaking in and drinking his wine!
The vineyard was founded in 1883 when the grapes were brought to Chile from Bordeaux, France. They grew well here and they grow lots of varieties of grape here in the Maipo valley with Cabernet Sauvignon being its best variety. Chile also has a good production of Carménère (produces 90% of the world's Carménère) which was ruined in other countries by a disease which destroyed the vines.
After the standard tour we had our session with the sommelier where we got to try 4 different wines, learnt how to try and smell the different aromas and eat different cheeses with each wine. Apparently the aromas in wine come from where the vine is planted, the fermentation process and the type of oak the barrel is made from (French or American- French being older and more solid, allowing less air than the American).
We tried the following wines from the Marquis de Casa Cocha:
1- 2010 Chardonnay with goat's cheese- aroma of various fruits and honey.
2- 2010 Carménère with a Chilean hard cheese- aromas include pepper, berries, chocolate
3- 2009 Syrah with Edam cheese- aromas include smoked meat and bacon, pepper, cinnamon
4- 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon with camembert- aromas of tabacco and leather
I discovered that I still don't like white wine but that I do seem to like the Carménère as well as Cabernet Sauvignon- funny to think that up until about a month ago I had never liked (or drank) red wine, not that I am drinking loads of it but it is nice to try!
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