Chile is most famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon, with whites from Casablanca Valley getting more and more attention worldwide. During our 5 days in Santiago, we decided to rent a car and head out to the Casablanca Valley, about an hour west of Santiago.
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| View from Tanino Restaurant at Casas del Bosque |
Casas del Bosque is a beautiful winery in Casablanca Valley, with a medaled Sauvignon Blanc. We had lunch at its restaurant Tanino - our appetizers of lamb empanada and seared tuna turned out better than our entrees of gnocchi and baked chilean sea bass (corvina).
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| Seared tuna with pistachio crumbs, ginger syrup |
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| Mini lamb empanadas with chili oil |
After lunch, we drove toward Casa Marin in the San Antonio valley. On route, we stopped by at
Matetic Vineyards, an organic and biodynamic winery. A fairly large winery with multiple labels, there's also a hotel on-premise. They recommended one of their best wines, a
Matetic EQ Syrah, and it was pretty good.
Casa Marin is a boutique wine producer located just 4 kilometers from the Pacific coast. Their
Sauvignon Blanc Cipreses was designated one of the Best Super Premium white wines in Chile last year. We had a winery tour, with a fluent English-speaking guide who was from Peru. The tour was nice, but probably not exceptional and ended with a tasting of their highly acclaimed Sauvignon Blanc Cipreses as well as Sauvignon Gris (a hybrid Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris propagated vine) and Pinot Noir, a favorite of the owner - the first woman to own a winery in Chile. The Cipreses was extraordinary but the Sauvignon Gris was not a big hit for us. The Pinot was alright. We might have thought the tasting was complimentary but nevertheless asked for the price and were charged US$38 each. That's quite a hefty sum, considering the 3 tastings were probably only 1 oz each. I guess super premium white wines also mean super premium winery tour charges...
