A Weekend at Viña Chillán

Birthday winery trip! That pretty much sums up the weekend. A fellow postdoc decided to celebrate another trip around the Sun with an overnight at Viña Chillán, an hour from Concepción.

Getting there was a bit of adventure, owing to the high cars-to-people ratio and departure timing of those cars. Three of us took a taxi to the local bus terminal and caught a bus to the town closest to the winery, then grabbed a ride with another taxi for the final few kilometers. Ironically our travel tactic, intended to get us there before the final car’s arrival, resulted in our arrival at the winery after the rest of the group.

The group of us were staying in a cabaña on the vineyard grounds, split up amongst the various rooms. As we walked around back, we first saw the pool (apparently freezing cold, so I never went in) and then the rest of the group, adorned with silly hats and drinking wine.

As the sun began to dip lower, we were met by the proprietor for a tour of the vineyard. He originally hails from Switzerland, so the tour ended up being a mixture of Spanish and German, with a smattering of English. The tour covered most of the standard winery items (types of grapes, climate, wine-making process) and concluded with a wine tasting in the cellar, near the aging barrels of wine.

Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of the wines. The whites were too sweet and the reds were not particularly appealing to me. But, to each their own…

We had a tasty dinner in the main building before retreating to our cabin and spending the rest of the night playing games and hanging out. All-in-all, a fun birthday celebration in a great setting.