Wine, Glorious Wine

Wine, glorious Wine!

Chilean wine is simply superb. You can get a decent bottle of wine at prices that are A LOT cheaper than back home (whereever that may be). At a supermarket you can buy cheap wine for $2.000 pesos (US$3.50) that isn't so bad (wine connoisseurs might cringe though) and some very good wines for only a couple of dollars more.

But coming all the way to Chile and buying your wine at a local supermarket is cheating. You need to experience the wine at its origins; learn about how it came into existence from its first days on the sun-drenched vines to when it had it was stored in old oak casks to gently enhance its noble flavours. Sound corny? Well it's better than saying it was ripped off the vines and mercilessly crushed to make a great party drink.

Whichever way you look at it, the best place to try Chilean wine is at its vineyard. There are numerous vineyards in Chile though not all can be visited. We have compiled a list of Chilean vineyards that we have visited and included comments on them with the occasional tip of what else can be done nearby. More info at: Chilean Vineyards.

An interesting fact from our Chilean Drinks page about Carmenere wine:

The Carmenere grape variety was once heavily planted in the Bordeaux region of France. It was THE grape for wine a couple of hundred years ago. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find Carmenere in Bordeaux as the Phylloxera plague in 1867 nearly destroyed all the vineyards of Europe. Fortunately, this grape variety was imported into Chile in 1850, so it wasn't wiped out when the plague attacked. Until recent times, wine lovers had forgotten that Carmenere had survived in Chile. It was often mistaken for and sold as Merlot before its true identity was rediscovered.

Try Carmenere while you are in Chile!

Indulge and enjoy!