Day trip to Valparaiso

Enough of the city...so we arranged a taxi for the day and headed for the coast.We had actually slept in too long, so had missed the possible bus day trip...not that I was so keen on that option anyway.

The beauty of having our own driver was that we could stop when we wanted to. I was keen to re-visit Bodega Indominta and perhaps have lunch, but the taxi driver convinced us to try another one called Emiliana.It is a  winery in the Colchagua Valley and it is  certified organic, plus has some bio-dynamic lines so was interesting. We had the board of organic cheeses and I had their flight of premium wines while Sarah had one wine.
First was the Novas Sav Blanc 2009 limited selection it was clear, acidic and not a touch on NZ Sav blancs. 
The next up was the Novas Chardonnay 2009 Limited Edition It was nice and light with vanilla, citrus and some buttery tones. I don't like whites in most cases so it was for the research!
Carmenere Cab Sav Novas Limited Selection 2008 was up next and it was more interesting to me. The carmenere was meant to be balanced by the cab sav.
Their top wine is the Coyam label. We tasted the 2007 biodynamic certified assemblage. There are 6 grape varieties in it......Syrah 38%, Cab sav 21%, Carmenere 21%, merlot 17%, Petit verdot 2% and Mourvedre 1%. each brings a different element to the wine eg fruitiness, colour, spices, tannins etc. It was very nice and balanced of course. Rolled around the tongue and all through the mouth as you were seeking out each element.
The taxi driver got excited and pointed out the poster on the wall that said there was a mini-festival on in the next valley for the bi-centenary...wine tasting, food stalls, dancing, musica.
Let's go ....the parking was difficult so he took us to another winery called Casa del Bosque but we were not very interested, so walked in and out quite quickly. We wanted the grass -roots variety thanks.
Well it was in a very small village called Casablanca and there were small stalls set up in the village square/green. Sarah needed to try her first empanadas so we went to the stall and first of all bought the cheeses ones then went back for a meat one. We bought tickets for the wine tasting which also got us a commemorative glass, and proceeded to taste and wander.
A lovely drop in...impossible if we had been on the bus.
We were dragged away by the driver to get to the coast before the sun went down.
Valparaiso is a world heritage site as the colourful wooden houses tumble down very steep hills above the once important port. One up from slums, very interesting. Up in the clouds is also Pablo Neruda's coastal house where he wrote. He is their most famous writer/poet and won a Nobel prize. We did the tour of the house and caught the vistas that inspired him.
We also braved the antique cable car down the steep slope. Most are broken!