House is a restaurant in the Casablanca Valley of Chile. It is owned by the Morande winery, a pioneer who discovered a method of growing grapes in a region viewed as just too cold to produce world class wines. Thirty years later Casablanca is noted as a significant producer of world class whites, Pinots and Syrahs. The restaurant serves gourmet meals with wine pairings that challenge the expected norms of food and…
I am writing this from the Vik Hotel in Millahue, Chile. Three years ago I visited this hotel, but just on a winery tour and lunch. I looked at the price to stay here and was persuaded then that it was like Unobtainium, a rare earth element that neither exists nor could it ever for someone without a stratospheric income. However, that visit changed my mind about the experience one would have…
Wine world (TerraVina) may seem like another television series about sentient robots, but it is actually about a hotel at the center of the Chilean red wine universe – better known as the Colchagua Valley. I’ll be the first to admit that for me the bold reds of Chile are its real strength.And Colchagua is the source of those bold reds. Near perfect soils protected by mountain ranges on two sides that…
We spent the last night of our visit to Chile in Valparaiso. We spent the night at hotel Acontraluz, San Enrique 473 – Cerro Alegre, Valparaíso, Región de Valparaíso, Chile Phone:+56 32 211 1320. This boutique hotel seems non-descript from the exterior on this street that looks very much like all the others in this area. However, when one enters into the sheet metal structure, major renovations have taken place. The interior was…
Portillo is a state of mind. Over 12,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains it’s about as close to heaven as you can get without oxygen.Well above the tree line so the mountains you traverse are naked and rocky, the trip leads you to wonder if the promise of Portillo can possibly be all it is thought to be. The twenty-nine switchback turns without guard rails, permit you to look down into…