Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is one of the largest towns in the Colchagua Valley, Chile's premier wine-producing region which stretches from the foothills of the Andes towards the Pacific coast. The town itself has not been very well developed, but the surrounding vineyards are beautiful and well worth a visit.

We went to Viña MontGras, which had an impressive colonial hacienda and offered the best wine tour we've ever been on. We arrived a bit early and were offered a complimentary bottle of chilled Sauvignon Blanc while we waited. On the tour, we got to go into the rows of vines and see the leaves and grapes and soil; we tasted some Chardonnay from the tiny tap on the giant fermentation tank (it needed a while yet); we dipped our fingers into a barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon (very smooth and nearly ready); and we tasted four different types of wine with a group of fun Colombians. At the conclusion of the tour, we bought some good bottles of wine for our road trip and we received a complimentary bottle opener. What a great afternoon!

Viña MontGras

The courtyard where we did the wine-tasting

The vineyards. These are rows of Cab Sav grapes.

Grenache grapes which we crushed to see their red juice.

Our table at the end of a very successful wine tasting!