Cycling through the Cono Sur vineyards
DAY 2 We got an early start, driving a mere 20 minutes to our first stop, Neyen. The owner, Jaime Rosello Larrain, took us to his very dramatic tasting room: dark wood, a long oak table, eight illuminated glasses, and some of the best wines we tasted on our tour. He produces only two wines, a Syrah and a Carménère / Cabernet blend called Espiritu de Apalta, but he supplies grapes to many respected Chilean wineries, including Undurraga, Caliterra, Valdivieso, and Montes. Some of the vines on his property date back 126 years— that’ s very old growth for Chile’ s wine regions.
Once the tasting was over, he gave us a tour of his incredibly modern winery. When you are in Chile, I highly recommend making an appointment with Neyen— for their highlyrated wines, and for their hospitality.
Another 20 minutes up the road, we visited Casa Lapostolle. The Marnier family owns this vineyard( you might know their other product: Grand Marnier!) and work with internationallyacclaimed wine consultant Michel Rolland to create awardwinning wines: their Clos Apalta and Cuvée Alexandre lines. Winemaker Jerome Poisson guided us through those, along with their namesake line, Casa Lapostolle. This was topped off by the most over-the-top terrace lunch you can imagine: scallop ceviche, octopus carpaccio, beef tenderloin with peppers— I could go on!
We hauled our full bellies into the van and carried on just minutes up the road to Viña Montes. The winery was built using feng shui principles, and you can feel the positive energy immediately. Winemaker Aurelio Montes and Export Manager Carlos Serano toured us around this serene winery( Gregorian chants play in the barrel room to promote serenity and peace in the wine). Grapes are hand-picked and hand-sorted out on the roof of the winery, where the vista behind the workers is breathtaking. The tasting at Montes yielded my favourite wines of the trip.
DAY 3 Our first stop was Luis Felipe Edwards, which produces over 1 million cases per year. They drove us up the mountain for a stunning mountain-top view of the vineyard’ s changing fall leaves( Carménère leaves turn red!). Despite some fog, I think we could see all of Chile from up there, including 700 hectares of LFE vineyards, eight of which are certified organic. We returned to the winery, met Luis Felipe Edwards himself, and did a power tasting of 25 wines in 20 minutes— that’ s less than a minute per wine.( Don’ t worry, we were spitting!)
Half an hour up the road, we visited Emiliana Viñedos( viñedos is Spanish for“ vineyards”). The winery was founded in 1986, and in 1998, it was certified biodynamic and organic. There is a small farm in the middle of the vineyard with cows, goats, chickens, and alpaca, whose manure is used as natural fertilizer in the vineyards. The winemaker, Antonio Bravo, took us down to the sorting line, where he stopped production so we could check out his equipment. He restarted everything with a quick“ Gracias” to the workers, and led us to the barrel room. We tasted through eight of their wines, and had a beautiful lunch on a table set with white linens and fresh cut flowers, overlooking the vineyards. It was like a moment out of a Victorian period film.
After our pastoral lunch, we headed to Cono Sur, where they have been practicing sustainable and organic production since 1998. Winemaker Mateus Rios took us from the main house for a 20-minute ride through the vineyard on the classic Cono Sur bicycles. We tasted a huge variety of wines— about 30 in all. The best part? We spit into spittoons lined with sawdust that they actually recycle back into their soil. We all left a little bit of ourselves in Chile that day.
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