Casillero del Diablo

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After hitting the pavements of Santiago all day yesterday I was still up at a reasonable hour this morning. In my excitement of planning my route through South America last night, I decided I really ought to try and do as much as I could while I was in Chile. Having seen a winery tour advertised on the activities board of the hostel it would have been rude not to try one of the countries biggest exports. I asked at the desk after breakfast, in my hugely broken Spanish, if I could take the 3pm tour to Concha y Toro winery. Sadly I was informed that I needed to have asked the night before if I had wanted to go. Those that know me well will tell you that by saying something isn't possible to me just doesn't compute. I knew that the tour would have been with one of the local tour operators 'Turistik', so I decided to bypass the monkey and go straight to the organ-grinder. I had seen their local office at one of the entrances to Patio Bellavista and so made my way down there through the park.

It was a beautiful crisp morning, with some dew still on the grass from last night as I wandered down the dusty paths of the park. Although it was eerily quiet as I set off, the closer I got to Bellavista the busier it got. Throngs of people were making their way up Pio Nono towards Cerro San Cristobal with candles and flowers in hand. It was at this point my heart sank a little as I remembered Antoine, one of the guys working at the hostel, had told me today was a public holiday in the city. What if Turistik were closed for the day, as was everything else in the city? I was that close to their office now that I thought I may as well take a look and see.

As luck would have it, I was greeted at the door by Ronaldo who welcomed me in. Ronaldo's English was as good as my Spanish, but nonetheless we managed to understand one-another just enough to book me a spot on the tour to Concha y Toro. Glad that I had persevered it was time to try and take in a little more of the city before my tour.

I continued to walk through the park towards town until I got to the Emporio la Rosa ice-cream parlour we had passed yesterday on the walking tour. I was feeling a little hungry and decided that some elevenses were most definitely in order. I poured over the various flavours on offer behind the counter for a good five minutes before I made my choice. I decided upon the Belgium chocolate and a flavour that mirrored a local dessert of banana and caramel. I was still offered a taste of a few of the more popular ice-creams which put this place on the map, such a rose and the raspberry and mint flavours. Sitting outside in the sun, I savoured each mouthful of the homemade ice-cream as it slowly melted in the rising heat. I also pondered as I watched the world go by, that no-one looked typically South American. Although everyone babbled away in Spanish as they walked by, none of them had the dark features that is often portrayed in movies. Santiago was much like any city anywhere in the world, in that it was a melting pot of different nationalities with different ethnic backgrounds.

Pleasantly satisfied and still pondering the true origin of the culture, I continued down the street to climb Cerro Santa Lucia. The highest point within the city other than Cerro San Cristobal, Santa Lucia is the remnants of a volcano millions of years old that gives some fantastic views over the city. I wandered through the winding paths and up the stairs to the top which was adorned with a small turret that was used as a look out point in the days of the conquistadors. The views were pretty special and the impressive Castillo Hidalgo that overlooked the way down looked imposing against the lush greenery of the gardens that surrounded it.

With the time of the tour drawing near I made my way back to Patio Bellavista to grab a bite to eat. Nit knowing exactly how long the tour would be, or if there would be opportunity to have something at the vinyard, I thought it best to eat now. I had my heart set on the Chorianna that Franco had described to me yesterday and so made my way to the restaurant he had pointed out on Constitucion. I sat myself down and was soon attended to by one if the waiters who started speaking to me rather quickly in Spanish. I stopped him with my fast becoming favourite phrase 'I'm sorry, my Spanish is only very small' at which point he tried his best in English. I ordered the Chorianna without even looking at the menu along with a Kross beer, another local Santiago brew. No sooner had I started to catch up on my blogs I was presented with my beer and a small basket of bread, accompanied by a chunky tomato and onion salsa. The beer was a mid amber colour and although clearly a larger, the taste reminded me very much of traditional English bitter. Within minutes I was presented with a dark terracotta dish filled quite literally to the brim with this local delicacy. Knowing full well that adding salt would have been an insult to the chef I tucked right into the creamed corn top of the pie. It was sweet, strangely moorish and exactly as Franco had described. With each mouthful I took I revealed a new layer to the pie. First the sliced boiled egg, then the chicken and olives and finally the fried onion with what looked like diced bacon. It was a wetter mix than I expected but each spoonful was more tasty than the last - I had truly found my new favourite traveling dish!

After a short waddle back to the Turistik office after lunch I was met by a slightly panicky Ronaldo as I may have been a couple of minutes late. I was soon sat on the minibus with a small group of others in our way to the bus changeover point. We were separates on to our separate tour coaches, where I joined a few others for the Concha y Toro tour. As we set off we were greeted by our tour guide Pedro, who did that awful happy clappy tour guide thing of going around the coach getting everyone to tell everyone their name and what they were doing in Santiago. Happily our tour was fairly small, so it didn't take too long. Once we had all done the 'High Pedro, my name is, and I'm here because I'm an alcoholic!' he began to give us a little background on Chilean wine making history. Amazingly Chile produces around eight million litres of wine each year, making it it's fifth biggest export and one of the top five wine exporters in the world. He also explained that Chile was the only country to produce an uncontaminated version of the Carmenere grape due to the countries natural barriers. The Carmenere grape was all but killed off in France by a small parasite that choked the vine from the roots up. Chiles protection by the Andes, the Pacific ocean, the Atacama desert and the cold of Patagonia prevents parasites entering the country. I sat fascinated as Pedro divulged information that I would never have known or have bothered to look up for that matter! He also told us a little known fact that during the second world war, France sent the mother plants of all the grape varieties to Chile, where they could be hidden and protected to help save them from being wiped out. The similar Mediterranean climate meant that Chile could propagate it's own vines, which is why all these years later it's now a leader in the world wine market.

We soon arrived at Concha y Toro where we were shown to the gift shop to await an English version of the tour. I knew I wouldn't bother buying anything here as Casillero del Diablo wine was available back home, and wasn't anything particularly special. We were met at the gate to the old estate house where Don Melchor de Santiago Concha y Toro lived in 1883 by Fernando. The house overlooked a beautiful landscaped garden and artificial lake that was originally used to water the vineyard. We toured the gardens and a small section of the vineyard to see the difference in the vines of the different grape varieties. We then had our first tasting of the Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay. We were given some tasting notes by Fernando which were pretty spot on, but nonetheless it was still a rather plain vin de table. Sadly this didn't put off the noisy, tactless Russians that were with us from another tour who were only interested in drinking as much of the wine as possible and not learning anything. Fernando patiently guided us into one of the ageing cellars which was blissfully cool after our walk in the afternoon sun. Each of their cellars could hold up to ten thousand litres if wine at any given time and more importantly led us to the famous Casillero del Diablo. The cellar got it's name when Don Melchor noticed that some of the wine he had set aside at one end of the cellar had gone missing. Knowing the locals were superstitious, he spread the rumour that he had seen the Devil in there one evening while tending his wine and since then nome of his wine went missing again. The tour ended with another tasting, this time of their Carmenere. A much richer tasting wine, that was wasted on our Russian counterparts, it was interesting as I had never tasted a pure Carmenere before. Back on the bus, we were all asked where we would like to be dropped. When he got to me, Pedro referred to me as Mr Paddy, which I found highly amusing no one has ever been able to pronounce my surname in a country where English isn't a first language.

Once safely back in Santiago I returned to the hostel and had the free evening meal that they laid on. It was a simple salad with sticky rice and a vegetable quiche, nothing that would blow the culinary world away but hey, it was free! I spent a little time cruising the internet to try and finalise my onward transport before retiring to my delightfully comfy bed.

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