As most can tell from my posts, I try to travel on a budget, however that does not mean I don't enjoy the finer things in life. Like wine. Specifically chilean wine. And my family here in Chile told me that Casablanca valley was home to some great vineyards, and it was on the way to/from Valparaiso. Without a car, none of us were sure how to visit this area. But I found a way, and it was pretty cheap.
On my Tours4Tips tour of Valparaiso, the guide Priscilla explained that you could go to the Bus Station in town and find a colectivo (shared taxi) that had a pretty reasonable price of 1.500 chilean pesos to go to Casablanca's main square. And if you haggled, you could get him to take you to a vineyard for about 4.000 chilean pesos more. However, that involved having a day during which you wanted to leave Valparaiso and then return there. I didn't have that in my plan.
So after some internet searching, I found a different method. I arrived at the Bus Station the morning I planned to return to Santiago, and instead of heaing to Pullman or TurBus (the big well-known bus companies), I went to the desk of Buses Casablanca. 5 minutes later I was on a bus to Casablanca's main square for 1.200 chilean pesos. Once there, I found a colectivo who had a very useful map of all the vineyards. I had a few in mind, but he showed me that if I picked different vineyards I could easily walk between them. So for 3.500 chilean pesos. he took me to Viñamar, right next to Viña Indomita. I could have gone to the winery I wanted for 5.000, but it would have left me 6 km from any other well-known vineyards. He left me at the front door of Viñamar, with his card so I could have the vineyard call me when I wanted to be picked up and returned to Casablanca. But I had other plans.
The wine tasting at Viñamar cost 4.000 chilean pesos, and included 3 of their wines: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Merlot. They were all very good (at least I thought so), though there were a lot of bugs flying around the tasting room which didn't really make the experience more enjoyable. I did get my own personal tasting assistant at both vineyards, since it was low tourist season and I was always 5 or 10 minutes behind any larger tour groups. After enjoying the view and finished off the provided palatte-cleansing crackers, I grabbed my stuff and walked to Viña Indomita next door. On my way out, I stopped to ask the guard about the way to cut through the vineyards, as well as the possibility of picking up a bus to Santiago from the nearby highway.
I unfortunately missed the tour of Viña Indomita by 20 minutes, but that happens when you arrive with no plan and no research. I could have stayed for the next one in 2 hours, but I wanted to get back to Santiago at a reasonable time. So I just did a tasting there as well. I splurged and payed 6.000 chilean pesos for the Premium tasting. This included an awesome souvenir tasting glass with the vineyard's logo. Here I got Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and a Cabernet Sauvignon-Carmenere blend. The view was slightly more impressive since the tasting area is outside on a deck, and the building is set up on a hill. After a short relaxation period enjoying the view, I climbed back down the hill and walked to the closest bus stop on the highway, about 30 minutes when all said and done with.
Catching the bus was probably the most difficult part. It involved me standing in the bus lane so I could see down the highway, and then waving and jumping around once a bus that said "Santiago" came by. The 4th or 5th bus took pity on me and stopped, so I grabbed my bag off the bench and went running up to it. Pretty packed, I settled next to the father of the family in the row in front of me and took a nap until arriving back in Santiago.
Overall, this experience cost me 17.200 chilean pesos (about $35 US dollars), and since a bus back to Santiago directly from Valparaiso would have cost me 3.500 ($7), I really only "splurged" $28 US dollars on a day at the wineries. I highly recommend this for anyone going to/from Valparaiso or somewhere else on the chilean coast, especially if you don't have the opportunity to see vineyards anywhere else along your journey.
Happy wine tasting!
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