(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XVII - Goodbye Wine, Hello Big City

We awoke and soon were greeted by Oswaldo and a maid from the vineyard who proceeded to the kitchen to cook us breakfast – eggs, fresh bread, juice, etc.  Also, cocoa puffs.  An al fresco meal on our patio seemed perfect, until the swarm of bees descended upon us, so we finished up inside.

Pre-Bee Swarming

After packing up, we headed back to Matetic for our horseback lesson/ride.  We were not sure what to expect, but upon walking back in, we met Emilio, our guide and we were off. 

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XVI - Chilean Wine Country Continues...

We awoke to an al fresco breakfast served outside our door on the patio which was lovely.  Then we relaxed, enjoyed the setting and did nothing until our 12:30p tour of the Matetic Vineyard.

Breakfast by our porch...

10km down the road was the actual vineyard.  We arrived and had a private tour, learning a lot about the vineyard – a Yugoslavian couple started it in 1990 and the entire facility is biodynamic and organic.  It was an exquisite setting and they even had horses and alpaca running around the grounds.

Alongside the winery...

Matetic horses...

We had our tasting with another couple visiting for a tour and, surprise, surprise, they were from NYC.  The upper west side. 

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XV - Cruising the Chilean Wine Trail

Time to head to a different wine country – Chilean wine country. We flew to Santiago, grabbed our rental car (a Mazda with automatic steering) and headed west to the Casablanca and San Antonio valley – a little bit different from the more famous wine country to the south but with many interesting and up and coming vineyards.

Through some research, I found two different vineyards that have guest houses. Our first night, I booked us in Matetic Vineyards. Once we finally found it, we were overwhelmed by its beautiful grounds, plus we were the only guests that evening out of seven guest rooms, so we had the entire place to ourselves – our own vineyard!