Santa Rita Vineyard

Chile is reknowned for its wines and some of the best known are produced at the Santa Rita winery in the Alto Juahel area of the Maipo Valley about 45 minutes southeast of Santiago. We decided to spend our last day with the Plaehns by visiting the Santa Rita wine estate and seeing how their famous Cabernet Sauvignons and Carménère wines are produced.

The Santa Rita winery was created on the site of an older estate around 1880. Local legend tells the story of 120 Chilean patriot soldiers who hid here during the Chilean revolution while fighting for Chilean independence from Spain and from that history the Santa Rita popular wine "120" takes its name.

This is the garden next to the Casa Real restaurant where we had a so-so lunch in a beautiful old building with heavy beams and high ceilings.

The Maipo Valley is at an altitude about 1200 feet above sea level which provides ideal conditions for producing the complex and long-lasting Cabernet Sauvignon and other red wines of the region. We were intrigued by the use of helicopters to move the morning frost off the vines.

Some old wine presses are kept on display for comparison with the modern equipment the winery uses today.

When the grapes are harvested, they are placed in large stainless hoppers and lifted by conveyor into the processing line where they are washed, crushed and steamed in huge cookers.

These are a few of the initial vats where the juice is filtered and processed.

The temperature in each of the many fermentation tanks is closely monitored on remote temperature panels in each area.

The various types of wine are produced separately in huge stainless steel vats with individual testing and monitoring controls.

Here is one of the cellars under the estate where oaken casks of separate vintages are stored under ideal conditions for aging.

Some of the casks are made from American oak and others come from France.

After aging in oak, the wines are bottled in this modern facility.

Bottled vintages are stored in "bodegas" by group at cool underground temperatures in the cellars of the vineyard.

Each vintage has documentation about its production and disposition.

One vintage.

Ready for shipment.