As we were in the cradle of Chilean wine, we thought it would be rude not to go and check out some vineyards. We took a bus to Viu Manent where they have a few hundred acres and a few million litres of wine and had a delightful tour in a little carriage pulled by chestnut horses.

Our tour companions were a Canadian couple and their kids and grandma. They seemed to know a lot about wine and asked loads of questions which was good for us as we found out lots of interesting winey facts. One thing that had puzzled Emily for a while is that some supermarkets sell "Vegan" wine... surely grapes count as vegan?! But apparently they froth up an eggwhite and use it to clean out the French Oak barrels as it is very absorbative and doesn´t give a bad taste. We also didn´t know that you can graft any old grape variety on old stock. So they had some hundred year old Sauvignon Blanc root stock that they had grafted some Malbec on top of. Old is good apparently.

On to the tasting... We got to try one Rose and 3 reds. This area is particularly famous for Malbec and we are now well able to appreciate its purply red colour. To be honest, Dave and Emily were not really able to distinguish many smells but they did enjoy the wine. One wine reminded Emily (in a nice way) of something elusively like salami, but she thought it might be a bit weird to say that so kept her trap shut. Our guide asked if we could smell black pepper, which was of course exactly the smell! Very weird how something can be so familiar but not spring to mind.

As it was our penultimate day we decided to splash out on a posh meal at the vineyard and we joined the Canadian family. The Grandma´s dad had been a wine importer in England which probably started off their passion for wine. We had fantastic steak with avocado and steak tartar and Dave and Emily were preparing themselves to meet an equally fantastical bill, when suddenly the Canadian family insisted on taking it upon themselves to pay the whole bill !

We tried to fight, but to no avail and we had been plied with wine and were only allowed to pay the tip. What a lovely surprise and a great way to end our travelling adverntures. Some people are very nice indeed..