Vendimias...I went, I tasted, I liked!

So as you all (very few of you that follow) may know, I have a HUGE obsession with wine.  So after going to some of the vendimias, I would write about what I thought!  

The first vendimia that I went to was Colchagua (in San Fernando) and it was probably my favorite.  It had a very good variety of viñas (as well as food and crafts), which brought out some of their good wines.  I really liked Caliterra Carmenere Reserva and the Santa Cruz Gran Chaman Reserva Syrah were very good.  I quite enjoyed the food as well.  I had some choripan, lamb brochetas empanadas and chicken tacos.  The only thing that irked me was that there were different prices of tickets: regular (3.500), reserve (5.000) and premium (12.000) and I of course bought the reserve thinking they would actually enforce it.  Silly me.  But at least I didn't get sucked into the premium!

The next vendimia I went to was Festival de Vino y Queso in Malloco.  Although it did have wine, It had MUCH more turn out for artisan stand than wine.  But all in all it was held in a nice area with plenty of space.  My friends and I got a tabla de quesos which was pretty good.  But one thing I have to mention is that Chileans like their cheese (and food in general) on the mild side.  And for this Wisconsin girl, I like my cheese to bring some flavor!  However, I did taste some wines that I really liked:  Viña Chocalán Selección Rosé Syrah/Petit Verdot and Terramater Vineyard Reserve Zinfandel/Syrah.

Unfortunately I didn't make it to Rengo due to my companion coming down with a bad flu :(

But I did make it to Isla de Maipo (today) for that vendimia.  Like the previously mentioned one, there was more turn out from other artisanal products than vineyards (there were only five vineyards).  There was HUGE turnout for this event and due to there only being a few vineyards, it was a typical Chilean clusterf**k to get a glass of wine (my #1 pet peeve with Chileans is that they don't understand the concept of a line or generally knowing who's in front of you).  But I did manage to get through unscathed and the wines that I like the most were Santa Ema Barrel Select Syrah (if you haven't already noticed, I LOVE Syrah) and De Martino 347 Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc.

So all in all I think my Chilean Vendimia experience was quite productive...and I think there's a few more left, so something tells me I'm not done blogging about it!