South America Day 34 - Concha y Toro

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La Calma de Rita is a strange place, balanced precariously between rustic charm and just plain dirty. Our Romany caravan in quaint and the bed was really comfortable but I could do without the mouldy shower curtain.

After breakfast, a similarly strange mix of tasty freshly baked bread and nothing else I’d care to eat, we head for Pirque.

Our plan to tour several wineries in our fantasy hire car has been pared down to just one, but it’s the biggie; Concha y Toro, the 5th biggest wine producer in the world.

We book the basic tour which includes a glimpse of the founder Don Melchor’s villa and gardens. Then on to a small vineyard, each row containing a different type of grapes. We’re invited to wander round, trying the different varieties. I’m surprised how different they taste, but then I’m no wine connoisseur. I just like wine.

Our tour allows us to taste 3 different wines. Then we are given a funky orange box to pack our commemorative wine glass in to take home. In our case, home is 5 weeks and thousands of miles away, so I don’t fancy its chances. The tour concludes in the Casillero del Diablo where we see thousands of barrels of wine, a fake devil and a sound and light show of how the legend of the Devil’s cellar came about.

Our hotel is 4 miles from literally anything so we stock up on supplies and return for an afternoon of swimming and lazing by the pool, drinking beer and eating cheese rolls and crisps (which we have share with a very insistent cat).

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