Our last stop, a relaxing 5 days in the wine country south of Santiago. Our first destination was the beautiful Apalta vineyard in the Colchagua Valley, about 2-1/2 hours from Santiago. We stayed at the Lapostolle Winery, where we enjoyed a relaxing couple of days, decompressing after a vigourous travel schedule the previous week. We visited four wineries during our stay and had the opportunity to taste some very nice Chilean wines. The accommodation, the food, the wine and the service at the Lapostolle Residence was superb. Could have stayed longer.
This is a montage of two panoramic views taken at the Montes Winery. The lower scene is an outdoor panorama taken from the hillside above the vineyard. The upper one is an indoor panorama, taken to encompass the breadth of a storage room inside the winery. A fun shot!
Another indoor shot, a view looking up the stairwell in the Lapostolle Winery. The winery extends six stories down into the ground. All wine flows are by gravity, to avoid the turbulence induced by pumping. Apparently turbulence is not good.
The building, in addition to being a state-of-the art winery is an architectural masterpiece. The next picture was taken on the upper floor where the wine is stored for the first year. From here, it is fed downward for further steps in the process. A beautiful room, pleasant surroundings for the wine to ferment in tranquility. No kidding!
A beautiful place to make wine. The wine’s good too!
A scene from the Neyen Winery vineyard, one of the four we visited.In addition to producing Cabernet Sauvignon wines, Neyen also makes wine from Carmenere, Tempranillo and Syrah grapes.
A view from our casita at Lapostolle Residence. It was a joy to awaken to a stunning view of the valley each day.
For our very last stop, we moved back toward Santiago to the Casa Real Hotel at the Santa Rita Winery in the Maipo Valley. The hotel was quite different from the Lapostolle Residence. It’s old, elegant and the grounds are beautiful. We quickly adapted to the change in style and thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance and hospitality. Here’s a view of Casa Real that I quite like.
It’s difficult to convey the extent and beauty of the grounds at this hotel with photographs. That would require many more pictures than I can include in a web posting. I like this particular shot, looking along the walkway in front of the hotel.
I conclude this post with a picture from the wine cellar at Santa Rita Winery. Unlike Lapostolle, this cellar has a much more traditional look to it, part of the great ambiance of this place. Perhaps not as secure as it could be, they lost 9000 bottles in last year’s earthquake!
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