A second day of wine touring. Today better than yesterday. And what contrast between the two wineries — the first called Flaherty! Definitely not Spanish. The second called Errazuriz….owned in part by the Rothchilds. Flaherty, very, very small. Errazuriz….very, very big. Much bigger than any of the vineyards we visited yesterday.
Ed Flaherty, in fact, once worked for Errazuriz. Today, he and his wife are enjoying the entreprenuerial pleasures (and pains) of establishing their own label. It started when he was working elsewhere and making his own wine as a “hobby” at home. Eventually, the success of their wine and his passion for it, led to them buying a piece of property an establishing a proper winery complete with tasting room, kitchen for preparing wine tasting luncheons, etc. etc. (And a cat and a dog.).
Cliff and I could totally relate to Ed and Jennifer (Jennifer gave us our tour.) Being an entrepreneur means that you put your whole heart and soul (and all of your $$) into the enterprise. This they have done. They came to Chile having met at Sonoma Cutrere. The came for “a harvest” and never left. Ed found that his winemaking skills were in great demand (and still are) and they made a life for themselves in Chile. They have children ages 14 and 17 and consider Chile their home. Their wine is spectacular. They make very little of it but do have a distributor in Flordia that we hope can connect us to some bottles.
Errazuriz is gorgeous. The main tasting rooms are in 100 year old buildings — very elegant and beautifully maintained. The production occurs in a modern building less than 50 yards away. The architecture is fantastic — not quite as incredible as Lapostolle’s but still remarkable. The vineyard itself is much larger than Lapostolle and the garden areas are extensive.
Because there is much less traffic on Saturday, we arrived back at our hotel at a quite reasonable hour. After a nap (Cliff still has his cold!), we strolled through Lastarria area open air flea markets and settled on a Patagonian restaurant for dinner. I had my first pisco sour — sort of like a cross between a margarita and a Ramos fizz. Delicicious! A lovely, mild evening.
And, now, Cliff is watching March madness in Spanish!