Day 7: Thursday, Santiago

By Gwendolyn

After much debate because it was our only non-scheduled day in Santiago, we decided to drive to Vina Ventisquero and meet with Felipe Tosso. The trek was three hours long as the winery is more out of the way than most.

An oddity we noticed: on the highway, we saw so many people crossing in the middle, this is a 4 lane highway with cars going 120 Km/hr, and people cross it like it’s a regular city street. We thought perhaps the many memorials we saw on the side of the road were not from people dying in car accidents, but people being hit because they were crossing the road with cars going that fast! Even odder, we never saw anything on either side of the road to make them cross, it was very strange.

Most areas we passed on the drive were poor, we saw lots of agricultural land shacks. Ventisquero was quite big. Driving in you pass by Agrosuper’s (their owners/investors) fields & factories. Possibly explaining their location. The vineyards of Ventisquero wind around and are not in straight squares because when planting they did not want to disrupt the flora & fauna. They have a number of native and natural trees and plants surrounding the vineyards and the winery uses sustainable agriculture, recycling all of their resources. Everything they take from the land is put back into the land.

Felipe Tosso, the winemaker, spoke excellent English, he’d actually lived in US when he was 5 with his family. Touring the vineyards, Felipe got down and dirty, showing us the soils, tasting the grapes, pointing out the leaf growth and veraison. He reminded me of some winemakers in France, who so love their land and vineyard, that they get excited to talk about it and explain the process. We then tasted through many of the wines, which were all showing lovely, except the Chardonnay that was corked twice before we got a good bottle. My favorite was the Carmenere Grey. Really delicious and complex and smooth, particularly for a Carmenere, with the spice and meaty flavor I expect from the variety, but it carried an elegance that I found impressive. The many different labels of the brand were confusing, I feel it could use a little more uniformity to help in branding. Felipe asked us to join him for lunch and so we did. Lunch was a salad with lots of hearts of palm (very popular) and iceberg lettuce (also very popular). Then some meat & rice and a most amazing ice cream of a native fruit that was just phenomenal. We drove the 3 hours home and got VERY lost getting back into Santiago. The street we took to get on the highway was unfortunately one-way so coming off of the highway was more difficult. We used the sun (sets in the west) to get at least a direction of which way we should go. We eventually found a street that was on our map and were able to follow it to the hotel. It was already 6pm but still somewhat sunny. We sat by pool for about an hour and unwound from our much-too-eventful drive. I went to the gym, where I used early 90’s Nautilus equipment and watched some Olympic skiing. We decided to have dinner at El Cid, a restaurant in the hotel highly recommended by our Fromer’s guide, not that this guide had helped at ALL in our trip so far. Their maps are terrible and the one restaurant they suggested in Vina del Mar made me ill. They redeemed themselves a bit at this dinner. We enjoyed delicious seafood and drank a Morande Chardonnay, the wine was good and matched well with the food. One odd thing about the restaurant: the food was delicious, but the lighting was so bright. Typically, restaurants such as this one, particularly in the states, have more dim lighting, but this was almost florescent. The service, however, was excellent as always, and the ability to go up the elevator straight to our room was appealing.

Day 6: Wednesday, Vina del Mar

By Gwendolyn

Our last day at Vina del Mar. We awoke to take advantage of the breakfast that was included with our room: first time we’d done it as every day before we’d been sleeping well through breakfast hours. We could tell it was going to be a beautiful day which was somewhat upsetting as we were now leaving... In case you ever visit Vina del Mar:

NOT everyone speaks English, so don’t expect it. It is not a beach-laden area. There are hotels with pools and very, very crowded stretches of beach but mostly rocks and stone walls. There are good restaurants if you pick correctly. The prices of wine are wonderful in most of them, the hotel-based restaurants like to charge you more. Definitely more of a tourist place for other Chileans than foreigners, and directions are not so great: do NOT buy a Fodor’s guide, look online and print out exact maps of certain areas.

We left Vina del Mar and drove the two hours to Santiago. Arriving in Santiago was not so bad. The main highway, 68, turns into the main drag of Santiago, called Avenue Bernardo O’Higgins: apparently a very important man down there. The road is separated into 8 lanes - 4 for each side - 2 for cars and 2 for busses (and only busses). And there are a lot of buses & they are all yellow. It’s a different place to drive, as most foreign countries are. Many one ways and lots of no turns, plus the road signs change whether you are turning right or left, and the writing on all signs are so very small. My eyesight is not so good, but Mike, with perfect eyesight, couldn’t see them either. Even if you could read them chances are a bus is blocking the sign as you go by. That was our first experience of Chileans’ directional aptitude post-Vina del Mar. Our concierge at the Sheraton hotel had given us directions that seemed easy enough. However, the roads he told us to turn on were all the opposite one-way, so we had to fend for ourselves and double back quite a few times.

We eventually got to the hotel. It was an amazing difference than our smaller hotel in Vina del Mar. We quickly saw the differences between hotel and luxury collection hotel. Everyone at this hotel spoke English perfectly, greeted us by name, and we received impeccable service from every member of the staff. Seeing the bright sun and beckoning pool, we ran upstairs to put on our bathing suit and ran back down to the pool. This was the pool I had been looking for at Vina del Mar. It was round and beautiful, there was a lawn area to use as well as a bar and restaurant. We ate lunch at a buffet with some very determined bees. I shooed and shooed but the waiter finally told me to stop, that the bee would take what he wanted and then leave me alone. I followed the advice, and the bee then landed directly onto my piece of pork, went to work and eventually left carrying a very large piece. Then it was gone. Luckily, he did not land on my wine - a Cousino-Macul Chardonnay. We sat by pool for a few hours, but we are whiter than white still, so when it got too intense and hot we left and got ready for dinner with Ricardo Rivadeneira-Hurtado, who makes wine at Maquis and is a partner with Global Vineyard Imports, an importer in Berkeley that has a large Chilean portfolio. He picked us up at 9pm with wife, Pilar, they took us to a lovely Peruvian/Chilean reataurant. It was one of the only restaurants open at the time - during February, everything shuts down like August in France. We opened 3 wines: 03 and 04 of Maquis and then the Domus Aurea. All showed well and the Maquis, while not terribly complex, is a neat blend of Syrah, Carmenere and Malbec, the ‘04 has a bit of Cabernet Franc instead of Malbec, and, in turn, has a bit more structure. It was a late dinner: I know the Domus was good, but it was so late and I had had too much to compare it to.

Day 5: Tuesday, Valentine's Day @ Vina del Mar

Yay! Better weather! We woke late, of course, shared Valentine’s greetings and then dressed for lunch. As we walked down the road to a place for lunch, we noticed that clouds were on the horizon. Mike said we should turn back because he knew that if I were in a restaurant and watched the sun go away and had no time to sit in it, I would unhappy - and he did not like the idea of what mood might follow. So, we turned around, put on our bathing suits and parked ourselves on the upper deck of the hotel where we enjoyed sun for a while, but then saw the clouds come in (sometimes Mike knows what he’s talking about). We adjourned downstairs to the hotel coffee shop and had another overpriced lunch. Oh well – worth it for the little bit of sun. Afterwards, it looked like the sun was returning, so Mike went to book a massage while I went back to the deck and sunned myself. It was a beautiful afternoon. At 6pm I ventured to the gym, where I was accosted by what I think was a complementary personal trainer. He spoke no English except for numbers, and I at least understand those in Spanish. So he had me going from machine to machine before he let me on the elliptical. Not sure why… I did not ask for help and he did not ask for pay… but I got a pretty good workout. Mike headed over to the casino while I was sweating it up. I didn’t ask how much he spent but I know he didn’t win. However, I also know he did not lose much either. We had 9:30 dinner reservations at Delicious del Mar which we’d heard good things about – from Fodor’s. We sat out on the hotel deck first for a glass of champagne, and the weather was so nice. Lots more people enjoying themselves, taking lots of pictures of the sunset. At the restaurant, it was a Valentine’s special. So we started with Pisco sours. Then moved onto the “house” wine and special meal. After so many wonderful culinary experiences here, I was so disappointed in this horrid meal. I felt quite ill after the first course. Everything was seafood and covered in cream - lots of cream. By dessert I was ready to go home. Luckily, every part of Valentine’s Day before that was lovely.

Day 4: Monday, Vina del Mar

A look outside told me very little had improved with the weather. However, it makes you feel much better about sleeping until 1pm. We thought this would be the perfect day for venturing to Valpariso, the city just a couple miles south of Vina Del Mar. We asked our concierge to make a reservation for lunch at Brighton, a cute bed & breakfast over looking the sea, and asked how to get there and see the Cerro Conception: a place everyone talks about. Apparently it was right down the road. Equipped with a map and guide from Fodor’s and our hotel bellman’s assurance of ‘right down the road’ we ventured off. He was right, it was simple to find Valpariso. Unfortunately it was not so simple to find the point conception. Somehow the map had it in one place but when we got there, it seemed to be gone. We drove and drove, looking for the big bright yellow Victorian house where we were supposed to have lunch, or the large hill that was supposed to stand out, but only found the downtown district of Valpariso, teeming with people and small stores and grafitti. It was not the prettiest of towns, nor the cleanest or safest. We’d have been happy to ask for directions if we thought it would do anything, but alas, we know no Spanish and doubt we’d understand the answer. Nor did any of the bustling people look like they had any intention of stopping for anything. Kind of like New York. We drove up a few hills, as we know that the point conception was to be at the top of a hill, but only found small streets and alleys, many stray dogs and cats, and lots of poor homes. So, with our stomach’s growling, no idea where to eat and me about to throw Mr. Fodor out the window (they will be receiving a strongly worded letter from me), we ditched the idea and drove back. It was almost 4pm at this time, when most places close. So we headed to Enjoy del Mar to have a late lunch/appetizer. Despite our past experience there, we did hope to have a better meal. And indeed we did. But we also had our first corked bottle. We ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to start. Since the wines here are not overpriced or marked up (except in our hotel) very much, you can order a few. It’s like buying them retail, with many at $10 - $15. The Sauvignon Blanc came to our table, ice cold. Our waiter, who spoke no English (not a problem) sat the bottle down and disappeared. So we stared at this cold bottle of wine just sitting there. Our stomachs were growling, we were ready for food and/or wine. At length, he returned. With an ice bucket. He’d taken 10 minutes, with the already ice cold bottle sitting on our table unopened, to find an ice bucket. Kind of funny, I don’t know if it’s because of American’s liking things so cold or if it’s a Chilean thing, but everyone needs an ice bucket for wine. Our waiter had put our Pinot Noir in an ice bucket almost the whole time at dinner on Saturday, until we asked him to please take it out. While the Sauvignon Blanc was fine, Mike still decided to order a red: Carmenere from Errazuriz. It’s brought to our table, and alas, it’s corked. Since we’ve had trouble explaining this in English to waiters in San Francisco, I was dreading the explanation to a Spanish speaking server. We tried, and he brought over his slightly English speaking colleague. We tried to explain that the bottle was corked and also what a corked bottle was exactly, but she then explained how Carmenere was different and had a specific flavor. No, we said, we drink it in the US, we like it. This one is corked. So she just said it’s not a problem. She took the bottle away and left a little in the glass and then he brought a fresh bottle out. We tried to get him to smell both to see the difference, but I have no idea if it worked. I think he just thought we were crazy Americans. As did the other gal, although we did not finish the Carmenere and gave it to her - told her to taste it next to the other bottle for a difference. Towards the end of lunch it got nicer out and we ran to sit outside of our hotel. We relegated ourselves to the top level of the balcony as the bottom level, with the pool, was still half submerged under water.

We made dinner reservations for 10pm as we’d had such a late lunch and sat outside until 10. No pre-dinner cocktails this time, thankfully. We re-visited Savinya in the Hotel Del Mar. This time we ordered a Montes Alpha Syrah. The wine was much in the style of Australian Shiraz to Mike although I thought it had more of a central coast California feel. Either way, we did not liken it to a well-structured Syrah. It had fun notes of blueberry and jam, but lacked in the structured peppery notes and tannins that we enjoy. As Mike summed up, it was one-dimentional. Enjoyable, definitely, but just not showing the typicity that we so enjoy in Syrah.

Dinner was again delicious, I had some duck while Mike had wild boar papparedelle. Good service again and as we headed out, Mike decided he wanted to play craps. I was still nervous about playing in a casino with a different language, but in reality, I’m just nervous about gambling in general. I’ve never been to Vegas, but Mike says the rules here are much more relaxed. It was low betting, luckily, so I felt better about that. Language was not an issue, although we lost about $40.

Day 3: Sunday, Vina del Mar

By Gwendolyn

Another late morning - we slept till almost 1pm. We watched a bit of news and congratulated ourselves for not being stuck in New York City due to the crazy snow storms. About 2pm we got out of our room, and headed down to the hotel cafe where we enjoyed a large lunch and an overpriced bottle of wine: the Trio from Concha y Toro, which was a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Blanc. It was really quite lovely, but, as we were in a hotel, it was overpriced. On the good side, an overpriced menu at the hotel is equal to eating anywhere in San Francisco or New York. So it seemed normal there and when we’re outside of the hotel, everywhere else seems to be a deal. That afternoon we arrived back in our room where we looked out the window at the still gray and overcast skies. The pool was unusable. We watched the waves break over the side of the pool and drench the pavement as we ate lunch. Boredom can overtake you if you are at a beach for vacation and yet there is no beach. Or pool. Or sun. Most of our day was spent watching the waves as they hit the rocks and sides of the hotel. Apparently this is an unusual thing for the weather: chalk it up to bad timing on our part.

Later in the evening the weather did not improve. The overcast sky remained and our hotel did not even put out chairs for aperitifs outside. We had a glass of wine inside the bar and then we decided to try a restaurant we’d seen next to Felini’s called Pasta del Mar. We first stopped by the casino for a drink at the bar. There we found a waiter who spoke perfect English and two that spoke none. I had a very bad Sauvignon Blanc, but I was in a casino bar. At the restaurant, Pasta del Mar, Mike and I both had fish (sometimes it’s hard not to have seafood here). The waiter spoke English fairly well - enough to get by. Of course, most Spanish Mike and I have needed deals with food & wine. We paired our fish with a Casa Lapostalle Cuvee Alexandre Chardonnay, a common bottle even in the US. After dinner we headed to the casino, then to bed we went.

Day 2 Saturday, Vina del Mar

By Gwendolyn

Awaking at noon makes you feel pretty lazy, but it is after all vacation and it’s not like the weather was beckoning us in any way. As we fell asleep before a real dinner the previous night, once awake, we were both eager to eat, although much to Mike’s dismay, I insisted on a trip to the state-of-the-art gym first.

The day was not promising in the way of sun, so we ventured out for a walk similar to the one we’d taken the night before. We found a place for lunch, Fellini’s, which was empty at the time (2pm). At Fellini’s, we enjoyed a big salad as well as a main entrée, swordfish for me, lasagna for him. We also had a bottle of white wine and a half bottle of red (we did not drink it all!). The red was the Errazuriz Merlot, a very popular label in the area. The total at the end? Including tip - $60.00. Quite the deal we thought! By 4pm, as we were leaving, it was packed. We’ve realized that perhaps everyone sleeps in until noon in the city and eats at odd hours. Which seemed to fit our schedule perfectly. Full, we headed back to the hotel. It was finally sunny out and so we put on our bathing suits and headed down to the pool. From 5:30pm through 7pm the sun was the strongest it had been all day. And the pool was packed. During our sunning, we watched a most amazing air show- about 5 planes were flying in artistic circles and crossing over us oh-so-close. Watching that over the water and the rocks and the blue skies was such a treat.

Dinner was at Hotel Vina del Mar. This is a Saturday night, but at 9pm, the place was empty. Again, by the time we left at 11pm, it was packed. Like the Spanish, late eating and long siestas are commonplace. Getting a reservation at 8pm gives you the ‘early bird’ special. At Savinya, we had a wonderful meal and a good bottle of wine: De Martino Pinot Noir from the Leyda valley. Leyda is a bit south of Casablanca and has a winery of the same name with a Pinot Noir we’ve tasted before. Most of the Pinot Noirs we have tasted, from Veremonte to this, have shown great promise. The weather of the Casablanca valley seems adept at producing well-made Pinot Noir. So we’ll see what happens. The service at dinner (as it was at lunch) was excellent. All service here in Chile has so far been wonderful. The servers are attentive and kind and put up with our very limited grasp of the Spanish language and our constant blank stares and inquiries of “habla inglese?”