Santa Cruz... Haciendas and Wineries

Leaving Valparaiso and heading south past Santiago, we stopped at a small town called Santa Cruz for three days. Santa Cruz is in the heart of the Colchagua Valley, one of Chile's best wine regions and full of Haciendas.

Stayed in a really nice Hostal/Bed and Breakfast with just a few rooms and a swimming pool in town. Visited the excellent Museo de Colchagua, that charts the history of the region from pre colonial times until almost the present. Has a fabulous collection of vintage horse drawn carriages, cars and wine production equipment, as well as artefacts from Nazca and Inca empires, fossils and an early rail carriage. After, had an interesting visit to the Carabineros to check the validity of my driving license in Chile.

Following day we took the local bus to Hacienda el Huique, a preserved hacienda that has links to various Chilean presidents and is gracefully decaying in the hot and dusty countryside. The buildings themselves are adobe, made with mud and straw, mixed by horse power, and screeded over. The haciendas were once the country manors of Chile, and were in effect private villages with the landowners at the top. Land reforms in the 1960s saw most of the estates divide up amongst the workers as Chile moved toward collectivisation. Now it's a museum (actually owned by the army) that still retains its former glory.

After a "completo" at a local village eatery, we took a collectivo to the Vina Mont Gras estate for a wine tour, which was fabulous. Neither of us had ever actually taken a wine tour before, so we learned about the different grapes, pressing, fermentation and ageing process, followed by a very civilised tasting with some excellent wines accompanied with matched nibbles. Bus back to town and another evening meal al fresco by the pool. Love it here.

More pics click here!