We woke up late today, it was a much needed rest too. We ate brekkie and then jumped on a bus headed for the wineries.
We were heading out to Undurraga Winery. It's one of the bigger ones in Chile and indeed the world.
When we got there we wandered the grounds and the spectacular gardens. Was a nice place. We were shown the vines and grapes, then led through the process, guided through all the machinery and vats. It's very intriguing the process, I'm always fascinated by it, particularly the volume of wine that is produced.
The cool part (and I mean cold cool) was going down into the underground cellar. Was a large vaulted brick room with tunnels and dark passages leading to hidden cellars. Quite a fantastic place.
We then got down to business - the tasting! Was really good stuff. Simi even enjoyed the reds here, which is unheard of. Unfortunately i cant change her onto dessert wine; yet! I love that stuff, so sweet it's like liquid gold! We both really enjoyed the Carmenere so we got a bottle for the road.
We then headed back into the heart of Santiago with our group - going for lunch at the fish market in Mercado Central. I really liked this building, grand steel pavilion structure - very 19th cent British in style.
The food was nice - I had a seafood paella while Simi had salmon. More wine accompanied lunch - we were fully embracing the vino now. It's probably the best thing about Chile in a way! It's hard to get a dud wine - even the house stuff is lovely!
We then retraced parts of the city we had already seen, but it was still fun as it was with our group and you were having fun, chatting and laughing. The plaza de Armas wasn't as thriving as I had expected for a Sunday either. We walked past more coffee bars with legs. Some of the women in our group asked where the ones with male baristas were, I replied thatI could only imagine you would have to be careful what to order there as the difference between a short black and a long black could be quite a handful.
That evening we headed out for dinner on Lasterria street, we hadn't eaten here yet so I was glad we came here. We somehow managed to eat at an Argentinian restaurant in Chile, which wasn't disappointing, the food over the Andes is much better than hear I think.
I shared a meat platter with one of the guys from the group, Oliver from London. Was full of grilled meat, deer and sausage accompanied by potatoes, eggplant and tomato. With lots of red wine - I was in heaven - meat heaven. Simi again indulged in dessert - she's loving it.
We got home after midnight again - (I watched the end of the superbowl). Was another fun day. Really enjoying our tour group so far, it's nice meeting new and different people to chat to.
We leave Santiago and cross the Andes tomorrow - we are headed for more vino in Mendoza- oh yeeeeah!
- Blog from iMat
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