A Quick Wine Tour in Chile

The French couple that I am having breakfast with in Santiago look perplexed. ”We want to see a winery while we are in Chile,” they tell me, "but we have so little time.”

Not to worry. Even if you have only a day or two, it is possible to visit a top Chilean winery, tour its spacious grounds and historic wine caves, sip a glass or two of wine and be back in Santiago in time for lunch--or to catch a plane to your next destination.

That is, if you take the 10 a.m. tour at Santa Carolina Winery, as I did. For late sleepers, there are tours at 12:30, 3 and 4:30 p.m. The tour lasts an hour, but you can linger in the brand new tasting room, which was completed in early 2008.

Most wineries are located in farflung valleys, but Santa Carolina is right in town. Line 5 of the Metro takes you to the stop Rodrigo de Araya. From there, it’s a three-block walk.

Your tour group will assemble in a room where historic wine bottles are on display, including the only two left of a special bottling in honor of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chile in 1987. The labels show the papal insignia.

Then you’ll pass by a room of stainless steel fermentation tanks and head outdoors to see the old chapel, constructed in 1875, when roof tiles were molded over human thighs. The chapel, and the country house where winery workers once lived, are now offices.

The national flower of Chile, copihue, grows in the courtyard of this old building.  Although its habitat is the far south, the plant has survived in this location.  A red copihue was in bloom when I was there in May.

A broad park used for weddings and other events includes one example of a Chilean palm that yields honey.

My guide, Macarena Moya, explained that a popular dessert in Chile is bananas topped with this miel de palma. The honey comes in cans small enough to take home as a souvenir. I picked one up at a Lider supermarket.

But I’m here to taste wine, not honey.  And here it is, a bottle and glasses set out on a wine barrel beside the walkway. The wine is Santa Carolina Barrica Selection Carmenere 2006, produced from grapes from the Rapel Valley. There are no vineyards at this site.

Only in Chile does Carmenere grow on its own roots, Moya says proudly. In Europe, phylloxera wiped out grape vines in the late 1800s, and new cuttings had to be planted on resistant American root stock.

Now we are heading into the warehouse and wine caves. Built over a 21-year period starting in 1877, they were named a national monument in 1973. To comply with that honor, worn-out flooring had to be replaced with an exact replica of the original.

We see huge fudres, tanks of Chilean oak in which wines were fermented before the era of  temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and smaller lots of wine. A few are still in use, but only to ferment young wines for cooking.

Now, wines are aged in French oak barrels in beautifully-arched and illuminated underground caves, designed to resist earthquakes. The oldest part was built by a technique known as cal y canto, bricks put together with egg whites and lime.

Wines reserved for the original owners were stored behind a railing at one end of a long corridor.

The founder, Luis Pereira Cotapos,  brought enologists from France and commissioned a French architect to design the imposing warehouse. The winery was named for his wife, Carolina Iniguez Vicuna. 

Our tour ends in the new tasting room, where I am poured a glass of Santa Carolina Reserva de Familia Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. The room is spacious and comfortable, with places to relax. A large screen is there for a slide show, the finale of a tour for architectural students conducted by the architect who handled the recent restoration project. Not only were the premises revamped, the  wine labels have also been redesigned.

Santa Carolina is now part of a large agroindustrial group, Watt’s S.A., which produces processed foods and beverages.

Carolina Wine Brands is the new name for the wine operation, which has an office in Charleston. South Carolina. Perhaps this will make it easier to locate the wines in the United States.

The sixth largest wine producer in Chile in terms of exports, Carolina Wine Brands has five lines.

The oldest is Santa Carolina, which ranges from varietals to icon wines.  Vina Casablanca is a boutique line from the Casablanca Valley. Antares is aimed at a young market.

Vina Ochagavia wines range from varietals to grand reserve wines. This line is named for Silvestre Ochagavia, who founded his namesake winery in 1851 and is considered the father of Chilean viticulture.

Finca el Origen produces Malbec and other varietals at a property in Mendoza, Argentina.

Head winemaker Sven Bruchfeld studied at UC Davis in California as well as the prestigious Universidad Catolica in Santiago. Once a month he takes the 30-minute flight to Mendoza to oversee winemaking operations there.

Fortunately, he is in town, and I meet up with him for a tasting before I leave. We sample wines from the Santa Carolina and Casablanca lines, including the intense Reserva de Familia Carmenere 2006, which spent a year or so in barrels.

Although Carmenere is Chile’s signature wine, Chileans  buy mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Bruchfeld says.  “In Chile, Carmenere is very good, but other varietals are also good,” he adds. Bruchfeld himself is partial to Syrah.

When I ask what these wines will sell for in the United States, I am amazed at the low prices.  Even the top of the line icon wine, VSC, a Cabernet Sauvignon blend, will cost only about $25.

I figured that shipping such a long distance would be expensive, but that is not the case.  “Shipping costs nothing,” Bruchfeld says.  And I determine to seek out these wines when I go home.

Bruchfeld has a meeting now, so our tasting of a dozen wines ends, and I head back to lunch in  Santiago.

Santa Caroline Winery Tour Schedule:

Tours are offered Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., 12:30, 3 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday tours take place at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The winery is closed Sundays.

The basic tour is about $15, and includes tastings of two reserve wines. The icon tour, at approximately $33 (the exact amounts depend upon currency exchange rates), includes tasting of two premium wines and one icon wine.

To schedule a tour, go to the web site,  http://www.santacarolina.com, and click on “contact,”  then click on “tours” in the subject box. The address is Vina Santa Carolina, Rodrigo de Araya 1431, Macul, Santiago, Chile. The telephone is (56-2) 450-3000.

The Photos:

From the top, pouring wine during the tour; the old country house, now offices; copihue in bloom, an underground wine cave; earthquake-proof arches; Santa Carolina wines; winemaker Sven Bruchfeld.