 Day
01: (Saturday) Arrival in Santiago / City Tour / Wine Tasting Dinner
Your Santiago guide will meet you at the airport and accompany you to your hotel. In the afternoon, there will be a guided city tour of the historical and cultural highlights of South America's most modern city. In the evening, we will enjoy a special welcome dinner with your Santiago Adventures' guide at the famous Astrid & Gaston Restaurant. This is one of Santiago's top restaurants and well-respected for its extensive wine list. We will try some special wines with our dinner and talk about our plans for the week.
Meals: Dinner
Day 02: (Sunday) Casablanca Valley and Valparaiso
We depart from your hotel at 9am for the Chilean Pacific coast. Along the way, we will make our first winery stop at Vinedos Organicos Emiliana (VOE) in the Casablanca Valley. The cool coastal breezes make the Casablanca Valley an ideal spot for white wine production; and VOE being the perfect winery to sample some of the region's best as this vineyard is progressing towards 100% organic and biodynamic. Next you will visit the Kingston Family Vineyards and learn how their vineyard, which sources quality grapes to many of Chile's top wineries, has evolved into one of Chile's hottest boutique wineries offering award winning Pinot Noirs. After the tasting, we will continue to the coast to explore Valparaiso, one of the first South American port cities founded by the Spanish and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Our lunch in Valparaíso will be at La Colombina Restaurant which is known for its fish and seafood dishes as well as excellent service. The restaurant has three spacious dining rooms finely decorated with antique furniture and an extraordinary view of the bay of Valparaíso. Following our lunch, we will take a walk through the Concepcion and Alegre neighborhoods and ride the century-old historic hillside ascensors (elevators). From there, we will visit the Valparaiso home of Chile's most famous Nobel Prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda, with its beautiful overlooks of the ocean.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Day
03: (Monday) Maipo and Cachapoal Valleys
Maipo and Cachapoal Valleys - The Maipo Valley, the "cradle of Chilean wine-making", is the oldest and most famous of Chile's wine regions as it is home to many of Chile's most traditional wineries. However, many new boutique wineries have opened over the past ten years producing some exciting top-class wines in the region. We will first visit Antiyal, a labor of love for its founders, renowned organic wine-maker Alvaro Espinoza and his wife Marina Ashton. We then head south to the Cachapoal Valley where we will visit Vina Anakena founded by school friends Felipe Ibáñez and Jorge Gutiérrez, they are making wines of quality and originality. The winery is committed to protecting the environment and practices sustainable production methods throughout all the stages of wine production. Here you will learn the characteristics of the different grape varieties of the valley and have a tasting. Following our relaxed lunch at the winery our day will conclude at your hotel in the Colchagua Valley.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
 Day 04: (Tuesday) Colchagua Valley
Two hours south of Santiago is one of Chile's largest wine regions and most developed from a "tourism" perspective. The Colchagua Valley is known for producing some of Chile's best wine, particularly the red varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere Syrah and Malbec. Our visit today will be to Laura Hartwig winery. Laura Bisquertt inherited the property of "Santa Laura" from her father in 1966. Later, her husband, Alejandro Hartwig, and she moved to Canada, where they discovered their passion for excellent wine. Coming back to Chile, they decided to open their winery as a retirement project and named it after their daughter. After this delightful visit, you will be taken to lunch at Vino Bello Restaurant in the small town of Los Barreales just outside of Santa Cruz. In the afternoon, your guide will take you through the Santa Cruz Museum, one of the best private collections of pre-Columbian art in all of South America.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 05:
(Wednesday) Colchagua Valley
The Colchagua Valley is emerging as the new king of Chilean reds and today's winery visits will no doubt demonstrate the quality of new wines coming from Colchagua--particularly the Carmenere, Syrah and Malbec varieties.
Our day will start with a visit to Neyen Winery which focuses all its production on one Bordeaux-style blend from their 115 year-old Carmenere vines. The Neyen de Apalta winery is the perfect blend of tradition and modernity. It was founded by the Rojas family in 2002 on the site of one of the area's pioneering wineries that dates back to the late 19th century.
Only twenty minutes away is our next visit, Casa Lapostolle Winery, created in 1994 by Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle (of the Grand Marnier family) and produces some of the best QPR (quality/price ratio) wines in Chile. Since its outstanding debut 1997 vintage, Casa Lapostolle's Clos Apalta bottling has helped to establish Chile as a premier red-wine region. Owner Marnier-Lapostolle and her team created a blend of Chile's distinctive Carmenère variety, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the estate's oldest vines in Colchagua's Apalta sub-valley, then kept refining: fermenting in smaller lots, hand-de-stemming berries and constructing a gravity-flow winery. In 2008, they were awarded a 96 in Wine Spectator for their Clos Apalta wine which was also chosen as the top wine of the year.
Lunch at the Clos Apalta winery with a spectacular view of the valley.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 06: (Thursday) Mendoza Argentina
We will depart from Santa Cruz and drive to the Santiago International Airport in time for our flight to Mendoza. Arriving in Mendoza, we will check in to the world-class Hyatt Hotel before taking a tour of the city. This evening, you will enjoy a special dinner at Mendoza's top restaurant, 1884 Francis Mallman, an airy, elegant restaurant at the entrance of Bodega Escorihuela.
Meals: Breakfast
 Day 07: (Friday) Lujan de Cuyo
We will depart from the hotel and drive to the Lujan de Cuyo area, one of Argentina's most traditional and developed wine regions just south of Mendoza. It is home to many of Argentina's famous wineries where the best Malbecs currently are being produced. First, we visit and taste wines at Tapiz winery tasting directly from American and French oak barrels. Then we visit Achaval Ferrer winery known for producing some of Argentina's most prestigious wines. Our next visit is to Ruca Malen, a new vineyard which has seen significant development in just a few years time. Here we will taste their fabulous wines and afterward their chef, Lucas, will serve us a delicious lunch of Argentinean meat, cooked in a "disco de arado". We will end our day visiting with one of Mendoza's pioneering winemakers, Carmelo Patti. As one of the most important wine makers in Argentina, he will share his passion for winemaking while preparing special barrel tastings.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 08: (Saturday) Valley de Uco
Today we will visit the high-altitude wine growing area of Valle de Uco. This is the new frontier in Argentine winemaking and contains some of the most dramatic vineyard scenery in the region. The snow-capped Andes loom overhead with 1,800 meter vineyards running into the foothills. The architecture, technology and fine wines being created here are all quite impressive. Our first visit and tasting is at Bodega Pulenta Estate, where we will visit the winery, discover its amazing design and taste their excellent wines in their very unique tasting room. Next we visit Bodega Lurton, whose owners two famous French brothers chose Mendoza--and specifically Valle de Uco-because they saw amazing potential for their Argentinean winery. Their winery is equipped with the latest technology and we will taste right from the tanks. For lunch, we will visit Bodega Altus, with a great architectural design and cozy Mendocino decor.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Day 09: (Sunday) Buenos Aires
Departing from Mendoza on our morning flight to Buenos Aires where we will arrive mid-day. Our local guide will meet us at the airport and accompany us to our hotel. The afternoon is free to take advantage of South America's most cosmopolitan city surroundings and relax. In the evening we will attend a glamorous Tango show with dinner in one of the most prestigious tango houses in Buenos Aires. Borne in the outskirts of Buenos Aires at the turn of the century, Tango quickly grew to be the best known Argentine specialty worldwide. Our VIP seating assures us a great view of this special program.
Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
 Day 10: (Monday) Buenos Aires
Today we will begin with an exclusive City Tour of Buenos Aires during which our guide will use four parks and plazas to introduce us to the city, its history, its contrasts and the characteristic "porteno perspective". The afternoon is free to explore - perhaps some world-class shopping in the downtown La Florida sector, or in the chic boutique galleries of Palermo Viejo/Soho that house Argentina's top styles by its distinguished designers.
Meals: Breakfast
Day 11: (Tuesday) Buenos Aires/Departure
With so much to see and do, our last day in Buenos Aires is free to elect additional sightseeing or shopping in parts of the city you would like to experience. In the evening we will depart from the hotel and drive to the airport for flights to the US.
Meals: Breakfast
Price Includes: All ground transportation in clean air conditioned and comfortable vehicle, Professional bilingual guide, Two nights lodging in Santiago with breakfast, Three nights lodging in Santa Cruz with breakfast, Three nights lodging in Mendoza with breakfast, Two nights lodging in Buenos Aires with breakfast, 15 winery visits with tastings, 6 luncheons, Wine tasting dinner at Astrid y Gaston in Santiago, Dinner at Veta Bistro with former French Laundry chef Roberto Leira, Dinner at Mallman 1884 in Mendoza, Tango Show with VIP seating in Buenos Aires, Santa Cruz Museum Entrance, Gratuities for porters in airports and hotels and Bottled mineral waters on buses.
Departure Dates:
April 14, 2012
October 13, 2012
November 10, 2012
| Land Price Per Person |
| Hotel Options |
2 pax |
4 pax |
6 pax |
8 pax |
10 pax |
12 pax |
Single Supplement |
| Five Star |
$4,963 |
$4,339 |
$4,052 |
$3,898 |
$3,842 |
$3,774 |
$1,501 |
| Four Star |
$4,443 |
$3,819 |
$3,532 |
$3,378 |
$3,322 |
$3,254 |
$995 |
Accommodations:
What’s included:
- All ground transportation in clean air conditioned and comfortable vehicle
- Professional bilingual guide
- Two nights lodging in Santiago with breakfast
- Three nights lodging in Santa Cruz with breakfast
- Three nights lodging in Mendoza with breakfast
- Two nights lodging in Buenos Aires with breakfast
- 15 winery visits with tastings
- 6 luncheons
- 4 dinners with wine including
+ Wine tasting dinner at Astrid y Gaston in Santiago
+ Dinner at Mallman 1884 in Mendoza
+ Tango Show with VIP seating in Buenos Aires
- Santa Cruz Museum Entrance
- Gratuities for porters in airports and hotels
- Bottled mineral waters on buses
Not included:
- Flights from US
- Flights from Santiago to Mendoza and Mendoza to Buenos Aires
- Entrance fee upon arriving in Chile $140
- Departure tax from Argentina $18
- Gratuities for driver and guides
- Gratuities with included meals
- Any item not mentioned in program
NOTE: We make every effort to provide you with the program as it is presented herein. However, certain unexpected events at wineries can mean the cancellation of a visit - for example a large distributor decides to make an unexpected visit. Additionally, as the wine industry in Chile is rapidly changing, there may be exciting developments that we think are important to share with our discerning customers. We reserve the right to substitute scheduled winery visits as needed.
Tours must be booked at least 45 days prior to arrival.
Prices and itinerary subject to change
without notice.
Questions?
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