A Wine Tour

In Argentina

And Chile

January 12 – 27, 2025

Introduction

This trip would be a little different: not a cruise and not really a standard land tour either.   This trip would be about wine.  Think of it as an educational program with a major in wine and, as it turned out, a minor in beef.  We were doing a wine tour through Argentina and Chile, both major wine producers and Argentina is also known for its beef, although Chile held up its end in this regard also.  We would be part of a group of 15 people, plus the two trip organizers and local guides.  One of the women participants announced early on that she loves empanadas so one of her objectives was to eat at least one empanada every day. (I think she was successful.)  I am not sure exactly how many wines we tasted, but it was a very substantial number.

One of the many vineyards we toured

The “Set-up”

I had been looking for some kind of wine tour and, since we are not especially fond of the cold Atlanta winter, it made sense to head south, way south, to South America.  Argentina and Chile are both known for producing lots of good wine and would both be very warm in the middle of our winter.  I did some searching and investigating on-line and found several small companies which run occasional wine tours through Argentina and Chile.  After comparing itineraries and dates, I decided that BK Wine Tours had a tour that best matched what I was looking for and our schedule.   BK Wine Tours is owned and run by Britt and Per Karlsson, originally from Sweden and residing in Paris now.  Besides running the wine tours, they produce a monthly digital wine newsletter, have written several authoritative wine books, and write articles for several magazines, so they do know a little about wine.

BK Wine Tours took care of all arrangements once we arrived in Argentina until the end of the tour in Chile, including all hotels, transportation (bus and air) many meals, and winery visits/tastings.  All I had to worry about was getting us to Buenos Aries and then home from Santiago.

Wine to be tasted at one winery

While there would certainly be some sight-seeing along the way to and between wineries, the wine was the focus of this trip.  There were only two days that we did not visit at least one winery (in Buenos Aries and crossing the Andes mountains) and most days we visited two wineries.  The winery visits were not the typical “drink five tastes of wine and leave” that we usually get in many wineries: each winery provided either a tour of the winery, a tour of the vineyard, or both.  Winery visits for tasting only (no meal) were typically two hours and visits with a meal added about an hour to that.  The typical daily agenda included:

· Leave the hotel in time to drive to the first winery and arrive by 10:00 AM

· Have a tour of the winery/vineyard by the winery host and a leisurely tasting of 5 or 6 wines (pours and refills tended to be on the generous side)

· Leave the first winery about noon and drive to the second winery

· Have a tour of this winery/vineyard

· About 1:30 - 2:00, have a lunch at the winery with various wines to accompany the meal

· Get back to our hotel before 5:00

Saying “lunch at the winery” is a little misleading.  None of our winery meals were light or quick: they were full-blown dinners served in the middle of the afternoon.  After these meals, Susan and I were never hungry enough to go out to a normal meal in the evening.  Instead, we had gotten some wine at one of the winery visits and we bought some cheese and crackers and carrots and had a light snack (wine, cheese, crackers, carrots) in the evening.  On one of our last nights, we did manage to get out and share a pizza, just to be a little different.

As mentioned, our tour group numbered 15 (plus the leaders, Britt and Per, and always a local guide) and the group turned out to be very compatible.  There were three couples from the US, two couples from Sweden, four single men from Sweden and one man from New Zealand; the tour was conducted entirely in English. Everyone seemed to have a reasonable knowledge of wine so we had that subject in common also.

Getting There and Back

As usual, I made all the air arrangements, flying Delta, which has direct service to Buenos Aries and Santiago.  I tried my usual game of initially getting lesser seats (Comfort+, in this case) with the plan of upgrading when Delta offered better prices later, or possibly get a free upgrade.  In short, it did not work.  The potential upgrade seats were shown as blocked out (probably for code-share airline use) the whole time and never became available at any price.  So, we flew in Comfort+ both directions and they were both overnight flights on which we got very little sleep.  I may have to modify my strategy.

Both flights were on time with reasonable service for Comfort+, but the food (dinner meals in both directions) was very disappointing.  Thankfully, we had been able to visit the lounges (Delta Sky Club in Atlanta and LATAM lounge in Santiago) and had eaten enough there to get us through the flight.  On the return flight, we hit a unusually long stretch of significant turbulence toward the end of the flight which prevented the serving of any kind of breakfast or even drinks, so we were glad to get to our house and grab a snack.

On arrival in Buenos Aries, I went to an ATM to get some local currency for tips and such, but the machine ate (kept) my card and didn’t provide any currency.  It turned out that several other people had the same problem with that machine, but the bank and ATM service company would not do anything about it.  I could pick up my card three days later in downtown Buenos Aries, but we would be in Mendoza by then.  We “locked” the card and ordered new ones when we got home.  We spent a frustrating two hours at the airport unsuccessfully trying to get the card back and another two hours in our hotel trying to get in touch with our Credit Union at home. 

The Itinerary

A short version of the itinerary, after arriving in Buenos Aires the morning of January 13:

Tuesday, Jan 14

· Buenos Aires City tour and Tango show

Wed., Jan 15

· Fly from Buenos Aires to Mendoza

· Bodega Casarena, Perdriel, Lujan de Cuyo

Thursday, Jan 16

· Morning visit to Finca La Cayetana, Maipú

· Lunch at Bodega Caelum, Luján de Cuyo

Friday, Jan 17:  Paraje Altamira, in the south of Uco Valley

· Morning visit at Finca Suarez, Paraja Altamira

· Visit and lunch at Finca La Igriega, Paraje Altamira

Saturday, January 18: Lujan de Coyo

· Morning visit to Bodega Otero Ramos, Luján de Cuyo

· Visit and lunch at Bodega y Cavas de Weinert in Luján de Cuyo

Sunday, January 19:

· Spectacular crossing of the Andes

Monday, January 20: Valparaiso and Casablanca

· Tour of Valparaiso

· Casablanca, at the lovely Casas del Bosques.

Tuesday, January 21: South through San Antonio to Santa Cruz

· Visit and lunch at Casa Marin, Lo Abarca

Wednesday, January 22:

· Viña Montgras in Colchagua (Blend-your-own-wine workshop in Colchagua)

· another winery, Viña Maquis

Thursday, January 23: Colchagua (Lolol)

· morning visit will be at Nerkihue Vineyards, Lolol

· Lunch at Hacienda Araucano, Lolol

Friday, January 24: Colchagua

· Morning visit to La Despensa, Santa Ana

· Lunch and visit at neighbouring estate La Sirca,

Saturday, January 25: The Maipo wine region

· last winery lunch at El Principal in the Alto Maipo Valley.

· Ride to hotel in Santiago

Then depart for home from Santiago on Sunday, January 26

As in the previous several trip reports, there is just too much material to reasonably put in one document, so this we will have a couple of “Chapters”, but only two this time.  The first chapter will cover Buenos Aires and Mendoza while Chapter 2 will cover crossing the Andes and all activities in Chile.

Chapter by Chapter

Chapter 1: Buenos Aires and Mendoza

Chapter 2: Crossing the Andes and Everything in Chile

 Some closing thoughts

In General

The activities and agenda were very wine (and food) intensive, which is to be expected on a “Wine Tour”.  If you were not interested in wine, this would not be a good tour for you.  While we understood that Argentina is also very focused on beef, we did not really understand the depth of this, dare I say, obsession.  We didn’t just have some steaks; we had big bunks of beef: each meal was more beef than we would normally eat in two or three meals.  In usual circumstances, we would have been putting most of the beef in “doggie bags”, but we had nothing to do with any such leftovers.  We were told that once we got to Chile, the emphasis would change to fish, but that never happened.  We had one or two meals with fish, but most were still major beef and pork affairs.  If you are a vegetarian or vegan, this would not be the tour for you.

The wines were universally good, with some reaching toward great.  Obviously, on a wine tour, the focus would be on quality wine and wineries, but with very few exceptions, all of the wine at each winery were very good, not just a couple of headliners.  Because all the people on the tour were reasonably knowledgeable about wine, our hosts at the wineries quickly adjusted their presentations to better address our interests.

I suspect some people reading this will want a critical review of the “BK Wind Tour” so here goes….  If you are a little serious about wine, I cannot think of a better way to experience and learn about wine in a foreign environment.  If you are looking for a true sightseeing tour, look elsewhere.  While we saw many interesting sights, the emphasis was certainly on the wine.  Britt and Per Karlsson made a good team for the tour: Britt was the “play by play announcer” giving the details and schedule type information while Per was the “Color commentator”, providing interesting tidbits and background on the wine and wineries.  All of the local guides did an excellent job also.  If our schedule and interests matched up again, I would not hesitate to take another tour from BK Wine Tours.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report.  If you have any comments, please send them to me at: mhammoc@bellsouth.net