The Colchagua Valley, a broad flat valley following the path of the Tingirririca river, 130 kilometres southwest of Santiago, was recently chosen by the prestigious Wine Enthusiast magazine as the best place in the world to make wine.
Soaking up the atmosphere from the back of a horse it is easy to see why. An intense sunshine bathes the valley in golden light from early morning to late afternoon to create the balmy microclimate for which Colchagua is known. The cooling influence of ocean breezes is also perceptible but the fogs and mists commonplace throughout much of central Chile is known are absent, locked behind the 2,000 meter-high peaks of the coastal mountain range, keeping the air crystal-clear.
Our guide on horseback is Andrés Mujica, a local landowner, whose vines provide grapes for some of the area´s most demanding wine producers.
“We could be producing 35 kilograms of grapes per meter of vine but we keep it to just eight – we want the area to be known for the quality of its wines, not the quantity,” he explains as he saddles up in traditional knee-high leathers polains and broad felt hat.
More than a century ago, Mujica´s great-grandfather recognized the qualities of the area and spent much of his fortune earned in trade buying up large tracts of the valley. The family later built the Lolol reservoir – a four-year enterprise which employed thousands of men – which now irrigates much of Don Andrés´s Hacienda Lolol where he also grows lemons, apples as well as fresh grapes for export to the United States and Europe.
The climate, together the area´s ground conditions – a mix of loam clay and volcanic soil – create near-perfect conditions for producing wine. In fact, the soil in the area is not too impressive. Dry and sandy, it does not look much good for producing anything. But these tough conditions force the vines to dive deep in the ground in the search for water and nutrients, an effort which means the harvest takes longer to mature and gives the grapes an intense flavour ideal for wine production. Now growers are pushing up the sides of the valley where the conditions for the vines are tougher but the resulting flavours even richer.
The first vines, imported from France were planted in the valley in the late nineteenth century but production of wines for export only really took off fifteen years ago. Today, Colchagua is now home to more thirty vineyards, producing some of Chile's finest wines. Some, like Viña Montes, Cono Sur and Casa Lapostelle, you may have seen on a supermarket shelf back home. The area specialises in red wines – cabernet sauvignon, merlot, syrah as well as carmenere, a variety unique to Chile after it was wiped out in the rest of the world by phylloxera – but some white wines are also produced.
Visitors to the area can visit many of them on the famous Wine Route ( www.rutadelvino.cl), an all-day guided tour that takes in three vineyards and gives tourists the chance to see local wine production techniques as well as a taste and buy some of the valley´s most prestigious brands. Another way to see the valley is on the recently-inaugurated Wine Train ( www.trendelvino.cl) which runs every Saturday from San Fernando to Santa Cruz. During the 100-minute journey, passengers have the chance to taste local wines and other delicacies from the region as well as a chance to soak up the stunning scenery from the carriages of century-old steam train.
The Santa Cruz Plaza Hotel ( www.hotelsantacruzplaza.cl) makes an ideal base for getting to know the region. In the small country town of Santa Cruz, the hotel boasts a standard of service hard to find outside the capital Santiago and a few tourist destinations. Its elegant colonial facades belie the fact, it was built just five years ago and inside guests will find everything they would expect of a modern hotel. It is the first step in owner Carlos Cardoea n´s attempt to put his native Colchagua on the map. 
But the businessman does not want to just offer visitors to the zone the same comforts they could find anywhere else in the world. Rather the chance to enjoy a slice of life peculiar to Colchagua. So the staff who are warm and welcoming are dressed in the traditional dress of Chile's central valley - close-fitting riding jackets and sarabands for the men and simple country dresses for the women. Inside, the hotel is decorated with other pieces of Chilean life; beautiful antique wardrobes and chests stand in the corridors while carved wooden stirrups hang on the wall alongside the Claude Gay´s famous prints of life in nineteenth century Chile. In a similar vein, the hotel´s restaurant seeks to offer revamped versions of typical Chilean fare, including empanadas (beef and onion-filled turnovers), porotos granados (bean stew) and chupe de jaiba (crayfish chowder), all washed down of course with bottles of excellent local reds.
Within the grounds of the hotel, Mr Cardoen has built the Santa Cruz museum to house his huge collection of historic artefacts, antique vehicles and much more. The largest private collection on display in South America, the museum seeks to tell the story of the Colchagua region from the earliest human settlement to more recent times but also manages to fit in a collection of weaponry, a roomful of Mapuche silverware and a collection of gold jewellery from the famous Lord of Sipán burial site in northern Peru.
Among the museum´s more surprising items are a gold-plated dagger that belonged Hermann Goering, Chile's Act of Independence (equivalent to the Declaration of Independence in the United States) and a piano once played by Bernardo O´Higgins, the leader of Chile's war against the Spanish.
Cardoen´s plans for the valley do not end there. Work will soon be completed on Viña Santa Cruz, a winery custom-made for tourists. Visitors will not only be able to sample the vineyard´s range of bouquet wines – they will also be able to bathe in it in the wine spa that will built in the foothills behind. Higher still, three villages will be built representing Chile's main indigenous populations – the Mapuche, the Aymara and the people of Rapa Nui – while at the restaurant Mirador de Lolol, groups will have the change to be shown how to prepare classic Chilean dishes under the instruction of a leading local chef.
Despite the laid-back country atmosphere, Colchagua is no sleepy backwater. The amount of land planted for wine production has grown by almost half in the last six years and set to keep growing as producers seek out even more perfect ways to make their wine. So visit Colchagua now and then come back in ten years or so and see how it has changed.
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