Valle de Casablanca

Only an hour outside of Santiago towards the coast lies Casablanca Valley, filled with quite a few wineries and even more grapes. It is primarily known for more of the white wines produced there but many of the wineries do grow grapes for their reds as well. I was fortunate enough to take a day off work and explore some of the Casablanca Valley with Linds when she came down.

We traveled to three different wineries; Veramonte, Emiliana, and Casa del Bosque. At each we tasted at least four different types of wines. (Don´t worry, we stopped for lunch in the middle.)

Here we are at stop number 1  - Veramonte.

All three wineries had delicious vinos but Emiliana was by far our favorite winery all around and it had our favorite wines of all that we tasted. Emiliana is an organic and biodynamic vineyard that utilizes natural processes and flora and fauna to aid the growing of their grapes for their wine.

They plant rows of cover crops in between the rows of grapes to promote soil fertility, prevent erosion, and attract the beneficial insects. Some of the plants in these rows also act as indicators for the grapes. The bad pests often attack the flowers first and this tips off the growers that they need to prepare for the possibility of the pests attacking the grape plants.

They have Alpacas to clean up the cover crop rows after harvesting is complete, and they use the chickens year round to help combat the bug pests as well.. eating them for snacks. I love the chicken house on wheels. One day they can be eating the bugs off the merlot grapes and the next they are driven over to the Syrah grapes to search out their lunch.

At this vineyard they don´t actually have a winery. They send their grapes that are grown here to be made into wine at their larger winery in the Colchagua Valley just south of Santiago. There is where they grow most of their grapes for their reds. But I enjoyed the wine tasting building. The forms reminded me of Henry´s senior project.

Personally I´m more of a red than a white wine fan but this sauvignon blanc gave me a new appreciation for whites again.  It is light in color and at first glance it appears that you may be drinking water. It is so refreshing on a warm spring day.

And of course our favorite of all. Coyam. The name means ´Oak Forest´ in the native Mapuche language. The original winery where Coyam was started is surrounded by oak trees. This is one of their most famous wines and it is composed of 6 different types of wine: 41%   Syrah,   29%   Carménère,   20%   Merlot,   7% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Mourvedre, 1% Petit Verdot. I know some people aren´t fans of blended wines but this is delicious. This is the composition for the 2009. But each year it changes a little bit.. sometimes they add more or less types of wine or change the percentages to make it just right for the grapes from that year. There best wine is called Ge. This one we didn´t get to try... but maybe next time. Good news for you, they export a huge percentage of their wine (over 75% though I can´t remember the exact amount) but you could find it there in the states if your craving a good chilean wine.

We wrapped up the day at Casa del Bosque (which means house of the forest). It was nice, and to my suprise I ended up being an interpreter for our tour guide which was interesting to say the least. But all in all, Emiliana just couldn´t be topped.