DAY 4 The first vineyard of the day was Viña Leya, a young winery that bottled its first wine in 2002. Chief Winemaker Viviana Navarrete led us through nine of their wines. Their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were some of the best we found in Chile.
Only 20 minutes from Viña Leyda was Casa Marin. Maria Luz Marín, the founder and chief winemaker, was one of the most inspiring women I have ever met. Her wines are highly rated( they have never fallen under 90 points with Robert Parker and Wine Spectator) and hers was in the“ World’ s Top 100 Wineries of the Year” in Wine & Spirits magazine.
Maria had to fight for her winery. It is built so far up the mountain that government repeatedly denied her permits to build. She is now a leader in quality Chilean wine( and she employs over half the town of Lo Abarca, where she grew up). She gave us a tour and we tasted nine of her award-winning wines. She pulled a 2005 Laurel Sauvignon Blanc to taste against her 2008, and months later I still remember the wonderful plantains and tropical fruit on the nose, with flavour bursts of pineapple and papaya!
After a lovely lunch at Maria’ s home, we drove ten minutes to Matetic Vineyards. We met Winemaker Paula Cárdenas Sáez in the vineyard, where she showed us her new shadow netting system and we met some of the vineyard workers. Another follower of feng shui, Matetic focuses on harmony and balance in their winemaking through organic practices. We tasted six very surprising wines in the barrel room( no Gregorian chants here; their wines prefer silence).
Not only was this an inspiring day of women winemakers influencing the Chilean wine industry, it was effortless travel: all three vineyards were within minutes of each other.
DAY 5 We started our day at a humungous operation: the illustrious Concha y Toro. You may have heard of their Casillero del Diablo? Annually, they produce 1 million bottles of the Cabernet alone! Of course there are 12
The barrel room at Montes( photo courtesy of Montes)