Tag:

visit

Uber & out! A new way to Chile’s wineries

by Amanda Barnes February 8, 2016

If you’ve been using Uber in Chile’s capital, Santiago, you’ll spot a new option among the on-demand rides: Uber Wine!

Little wine bottle-shaped vehicles move around Santiago’s centre on the app until you call your Uber Wine, which will take you out to Casablanca to visit a local winery.

Veramonte is the winery on offer as of yet, and Uber books your premium tasting of four of their wines and a wine tour for you and your fellow passengers. There’s a booking minimum of two passengers and you can squeeze up to 6 in an Uber vehicle.

The wine tasting fee and trip costs $80,000 pesos per person, based on 2 sharing, and gets a bit cheaper as more passengers share the vehicle.

Find out more here.

February 8, 2016 0 comment

Chile Features Features By Region Santiago Travel & Culture Foodie

Barrio Italia: A haven for foodies & design in Santiago

by Amanda Barnes January 20, 2016

written by Amanda Barnes

It is not surprising that with a name like ‘Barrio Italia’ (Italian Neighborhood) this corner of Chile is filled with designers and chefs!

Chile has many immigrant influences, and one of the most stylish – and delicious – of those were the Italians. Famed for its Italian roots, excellent cafes and design shops, Barrio Italia in Santiago is an epicurean delight as well as a feast for the eyes…

The origin of the name comes from some of the first settlers here. The Italian Girardi family came to Santiago and opened a hat factory in the area in 1905. As their industry grew, many other Italian families moved in, followed by Spanish families too. The neighborhood grew and the European expats began to set up shops in front of their houses, as they typically did back at home.

The area became known as the ‘Italian neighborhood’ (or barrio in Spanish) and a large street in the middle of the district was named Avenida, Italia alongside the large art-deco theatre, Teatro Italia.

Nowadays the neighborhood has few Italians left, although the legacy remains with unique design shops, many antique stores and cute cafés.

Although the large Girardi hat factory has closed, there are many other places to buy handmade hats in Barrio Italia, and shoes, clothes, jewelry, perfumed soaps, leather goods, handbags… and so much more! The list is endless.

This is the best-known place for small and independent design shops in the city. There are many galleries of shops that are like mini-worlds of design: step through just one door from the street, and it opens up into a dozen shops hidden inside. You’ll find many new and exciting Chilean designers here, and it is a great spot for unique and bespoke design pieces.

Furniture and accessory stores are also important in the neighborhood – both old and new! While Barrio Italia is packed with contemporary designers, it is also full to the brim with antiques. If you visit Caupolicán street (between Girardi and Condell) you will find the road filled with antiques and recycled furniture, as well as vinyl records, old photos and books.

Recommended visits:

Estacion Italia, Avenida Italia 1439
One of the largest galleries in Barrio Italia, the Estacion Italia has over 50 boutique shops inside selling design wear, jewelry, handmade soaps, stationary and children’s clothes.

Amoble, Avenida Italia 1372
Selling colorful, custom-made pieces of furniture and home decorations, this is one of the most popular contemporary furniture stores in the neighborhood.
The perfect accompaniment to a shopping trip is a café. And Barrio Italia is full of them! When you need a spot to rest your legs tired from shopping, there are many cafes and small restaurants to relax in and refuel. Most cafés have a great assortment of ground coffee and loose-leaf tea, as well as fresh juices made from Chile’s many different types of fruit. But the highlight of visiting a café in Barrio Italia is the sweet treats: pastries, cakes, tarts and ice creams. This neighborhood is ideal for anyone with a sweet tooth!

If you are looking for something more filling, then there are some great restaurants a little further south. There are – of course – Italian restaurants here as well as Spanish-influenced tapas bars, Peruvian cuisine, Sushi bars, and traditional Chilean eateries.

Recommended visits:

Xoco Por Ti ‘Chocolate Bar’, Avenida Italia 1634
If you are a chocoholic, this is the place for you! This pretty café has 5 daily different hot chocolates from around South America (Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia), excellent croissants and indulgent chocolate ice cream.

Ruca Bar, Avenida Condell 868
This restaurant and bar has a long list of cocktails and a short list of imaginative tapas. The menu might be small but the flavor is big! Try pulled pork mini-burgers, or salmon tartar with avocado cream.

Every day of the week is a nice time to visit Barrio Italia. It is a quiet neighborhood that is enjoyable to visit on foot or by bicycle. Weekends are busier with locals meeting for drinks on their days off work, but there is always a buzz in the barrio. At least twice a year (April and July normally) there are different festivals in Barrio Italia with live music, dance, tastings and special activities.

Details:
Barrio Italia is centered around Avenida Italia between the Providencia and Ñuñoa neighborhoods. You can take the metro to Santa Isabel and walk to Avenida Italia, which is 4 blocks away. If you are taking a taxi or car, go to Santa Isabel on the corner of Avenida Italia to start. For more information visit www.barrioitalia.cl

January 20, 2016 0 comment

Mendoza By Region Argentina Features Travel & Culture Foodie

Explore in 24: A Foodie’s Tour of Mendoza

by Amanda Barnes June 15, 2015

written by Amanda Barnes

If you have come to Mendoza to eat to your heart’s delight, then this is the itinerary for you. Vegetarian’s need not apply.

6pm: Start your night off with some wine tasting which inevitably builds an appetite. Book your own wine tasting with our local experts in a beautiful historical home where you can taste through Argentina’s key varieties, nibble on a few delicious local cheeses and get those taste buds going…

8.30pm: If you want to stay in the city and get a taste of some real Argentine cuisine with a gourmet touch, try out Siete Cocinas (Mitre 794) where chef Pablo del Rio serves up typical ingredients and dishes from the seven cuisine regions of Argentina; or try the fun, younger brother restaurant Fuente y Fonda (Montevideo 675) that specializes in family-sized Argentine dishes like milanesas and deep pasta dishes . Just outside the city center is Argentina’s most famous TV chef Francis Mallmann’s 1884 restaurant (Belgrano 1188, Godoy Cruz) where diners come to splash out and eat big.

11pm: Skip dessert because the real sweet tooth indulgence here is the ice cream, for which you have to go to one of the many popular ice cream parlors which will stay packed till 2am. Top scoops are the many dulce de leche flavors and wine inspired flavors like Malbec & Cream, and Torrontes sorbet. Try visiting Ferruccio Soppelsa or chocolate specialist Bianco y Nero, both of which have outlets all over town.

9am: Argentines don’t really do breakfast, so most breakfasts on the run consist of coffee (usually bad) and a tortita (a savory bread roll made with beef dripping). If you do like a breakfast though, go to Brillat Savarin (Juan B Justo 135) where you’ll meet petit France in Mendoza with dulce de leche and Malbec macaroons and ham and cheese croissants. Pack some to go and enjoy them during a morning stroll in San Martin Park.

11am: The best way to indulge in you culinary bone is with a winery lunch – courses paired with wines and making a game of flavor, texture and color are a delight to the eye and tongue. Check out our Top Five Winery Restaurants (LINK) or try a cooking class at Norton or Zuccardi (LINKS) to learn your way around some Argentine classics like homemade empanadas and steak with chimichurri sauce.

3pm: Siesta.

June 15, 2015 0 comment

Chile Features By Region Casablanca and Valpo Wine Travel & Culture

Keeping cool in Casablanca

by Amanda Barnes May 30, 2015

written by Amanda Barnes

When imagining ‘cool climate’ wines, what springs to my mind first is the image of soggy, wet vines and miserable days of drizzle that leave your head firmly in the clouds, and not in a good way. Spending the first 25 years of my life in England probably didn’t help that image.

But in Chile… as I sat lapping up the sunshine by a glistening swimming pool, under perfect blue skies, and listening to birds squawk in the palm trees of Matetic winery’s boutique hotel in Casablanca/San Antonio, I started to question my initial impressions of cool climate… It wasn’t cold here. In fact, it was positively balmy.
Casablanca might be a cool climate wine region, but visiting the area is not a frosty experience: days are filled with sunshine and warm lazy afternoons drinking copious amounts of wine as you tuck into fine Chilean cuisine. This particular afternoon I was tucking into fresh and buttery potted crab with a glass of tropical fruit-filled Chardonnay, followed by a rosemary-crusted lamb fillet with a smooth, spicy Syrah. I couldn’t keep my top button done up, let alone keep my jacket on.

While the day time temperatures and sunny climes make Casablanca a perfect holiday destination, the cooler nights mean you won’t lose any hours of sleep and can still rest nicely with a big blanket – that is good news for people and for grapes. The big difference in temperature from the sunny, skin ripening days compared to the cool, cool nights is what makes these wines so racy. And in the morning when you do finally wake from a perfect slumber, a fresh fog lays over the valley keeping the grapes cool and not awakening them too rudely either. The sun slowly appears through the fog, and then we are back to sunbathing. I understand why grapes do so well here: they can rest at night, and get some colour during the day. And that is the secret to the success of cool climate wines… maintaining the cool acidity while developing their colour, sugar and flavour profiles in the summer-y afternoons.

Working your way around the attractive and modern wineries of Casablanca it would seem that this was the natural choice for vineyard plantation, but just 30 years ago no-one dared to plant here. The risk of frost (which is still a real risk) and the foggy mornings put people off of grape cultivation, in favour of planting in the warm Mediterranean climates inland. One crazy man though did plant here, Pablo Morande, and while most of Chile looked at him as a complete nutter they didn’t acknowledge that insanity is the flipside of genius until they learnt which side of the coin Morande was on, when they tasted his wines. They were fantastic, and it was here in cool Casablanca that Chile’s journey into cool climate wines began three decades ago.

Since then, Chile hasn’t looked back. Once someone had broken the ice (obviously not literally – it isn’t that cold) winemaker’s began exploring throughout different cool coastal areas up and down the country, even planting in Elqui Valley, which with its position next to the Atacama Desert region is just as mind blowing in its definition as cool. But Casablanca still remains the reference point for Chile’s cool climate wines: making sharp Sauvignon Blancs, refreshing Pinot Noirs and silky Syrahs.

What is the best way to enjoy Casablanca’s cool climate wines? On a hot Summer’s day, poolside, with a decent book, an ice cooler and a sublime glass of cool Casablanca.

Want to book a wine tour in Casablanca? Check out our wine tour of Casablanca here.

May 30, 2015 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts