Pirque, Chile: Concha y Toro Vineyard

January 4, 2011 (part I)

Today we rented a truck and explored some of the rural areas outside of Santiago. Our itinerary was action-packed, and included a stop at the Concha y Toro winery, hiking,  and a dip in some mineral springs.

Since my trip to Chile in 2003, the wine tourism industry has grown considerably. Given my family's love of wine, I thought it essential that we make a stop at one of the local wineries during our visit to the countryside. While there were numerous choices of vineyards, we chose to visit the largest and most widely recognized label in the Chilean wine industry: Concha y Toro, in the little town of Pirque.

We had arranged for the rental car company to deliver our 2x4 truck to our hotel at half past nine, and surprisingly, they were actually on-time. The car rental guy walked us through all the necessities (including showing us where the emergency flat tire kit was located; seemingly as a means to indicate that it was not at all out of the realm of likelihood that we might need to use it). We were all set to get out of town, but first we had to navigate our way out of the compact underground parking garage in our not-so-compact truck. And did I mention the car had standard transmission? Let's just say it was a stressful few minutes, with my Dad in the driver's seat, me attempting to provide navigational assistance, and my Mom and Brother in the backseat trying not to have a panic attack. After about 10 backup/pull forward/reverse movements, we made our way up the steep ramp to the main road.

Driveway up from the Parking Garage to the Main Road

Further challenges lay ahead as we attempted to navigate our way out of the city sans GPS (the rental company was all out, and our GPS device wasn't programed for South America - go figure). So we were navigating old-school, with hand-written directions scribbled from Google combined with additional tips and tricks provided by the rental car guy. We hit our first snag when we saw signs indicated that the road we were supposed to follow out of town was closed off due to construction. Fortunately, we were able to find an easy detour that didn't take us too much of of the way. There was a lot of stop-and-go traffic getting out of town, but overall, not too bad.

We arrived in Pirque with only minutes to spare before our scheduled tour time at the Concha y Toro winery. Going on the advice of our guide book, I had made the appointment a couple weeks ahead of time, so it was important that we arrive on time to be able to have the tour in English. We were joined on our tour by English-speaking tourist from all over the world, including Hong Kong, Ireland, South Africa and Australia. Our guide was a young Chilean whose English was good, but still had room for improvement. He seemed very knowledgeable about the vineyard and wine making in general, which was appreciated. The grounds of vineyard were beautiful and the weather very agreeable (chilly in the shade, perfect in the sun).

Entrance to the Concha y Toro Vineyard in Pirque Chile

Grounds of Concha y Toro Vineyard in Pirque, Chile

 The actual wine tasting were few (only 2 wines), but pefectly placed throughout the tour and each wine was undoubtedly delicious (they definitely went for quality over quantity). The first tasting was a a whilte wine from the Trio Collection (a mixture of several grapes and/or several vineyards), which we tasted outside on the veranda. The second wine was a first class red that we tasted after a tour of the Casillero del Diablo (Devil's Cellar), where we were given an interesting show of sorts with lighting effects and a voice over about the legend of the Devil's Cellar. According to local lore, the original owner of the Concha y Toro winery spread a rumor that the devil was in his cellar to keep people from stealing his wines.//

Our tour guide at the Concha y Toro Vineyard getting ready to pour our first tasting glass

Casillero de Diablo (Devil's Cellar)