Wine Tasting!

Today I got to visit the central location of second largest Vineyard group in the WORLD!  It is called Viña Concha y Toro, second to an Australian vineyard.  Concha y Toro has large vineyards all over Chile, some in Argentina, and about 900 hectares in Napa Valley, California.  It was founded in 1883 by a Chilean of Spanish parents named Don Melchor de Santiago Concha y Toro.  It is one of the oldest vineyards in Chile, a country known for its exquisite wines!

The vineyard is located at the southern edge of Santiago.  It has beautiful British-style gardens and estates, wine cellars galore, and those wonderfully linear fields of none other than vitis vinifera (grapes). The UC program has organized some cool trips for us.

The founder's house and estate

Vino blanco

Vino tinto

Tasting the grapes!

Tasting the wine!

Exquisite red wine tasting

The Cellars at Concha Y Toro are known for the devil that lives within them.  As legend goes, after much thievery of specialty wines, the devil came to frequent the vineyard's cellars.  He chased the thieves out and scared them for good.  There have been no incidents of stolen wine since.  The cellar is therefore known as El Casillero del Diablo.  We got to go down inside it in the dark, and they had a light show narrate the spooky story!