A couple of weeks ago we went to a long overdue tour at vineyard Concha y Toro. The winery is in Pirque in the Maipo Valley, not far from Santiago, so it was about time to see one of the world's biggest wine producers!
This time our group was mostly made out of Swiss with a few exceptions.
April is the time of harvesting the grapes. According to our guide Ronny, Concha y Toro is the second biggest winery in the world and the largest wine producer of Latin America. 70 % of their production is exported.
Visiting the vineyard is actually not recommended by the locals as it is considered very commercial. Tourist-y it is, yes - every 10 to 15 minutes a new tour departs. They get approximately 450 tourists per day in average, and during high season they can reach even a thousand guests a day. More than 80 % of the tourists come from Brazil.
This is of course what attracts the tourists - their most famous legend, Casillero del Diablo. According to the winery it means the devil's cellar, but actually it means devil's storage or pigeonhole, a place used to store things. It was a legend created to let the possible thieves believe the place was haunted.
After the quick tour around the premises, the cellar and (just) two wine tastings, it was time to continue tickling the taste buds on our own.
We chose one of their better wines, Terrunyo, with the help of a sommelier.
Commercial or not, they sure make great wine! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Wine is bottled poetry.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
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