Santiago, Chile

We concluded our South America cruise in Valparaiso, Chile. We booked a wine tour through Liz Caskey Wine Tours, which would take us from the Chilean coast to Santiago in one day. We decided on the tour that would introduce us to Chilean coastal white wines, with which we had no experience (we had drunk plenty of carmenere, merlot and other Chilean reds, but didn't know anything about white wines of the region). Our favorite winery of the trip was Casa Marin, which had an amazing Sauvignon Gris and Sauvignon Blanc (Laurel Vineyard). Sauvignon Gris is a mutation of Sauvignon Blanc, but it has a relatively low-yield of fruit, so it's not a particularly popular varietal. In coastal Chile, it appears to be thriving. The 2009 vintage has a smoky, citrusy flavor, which paired amazingly well with my roast chicken with tomatoes and olives - I think it was the fennel and other provencal flavors that matched so beautifully with the notes of the wine. I sent an email to Felipe Marin and Jamie Verbraak letting them know how terrific the wine tasted with dinner. I hope they link to this blog, and I'm linking here to theirs. They only have a couple of US distributors (both in NYC), so if you're lucky enough to see one of their wines in a shop, buy one (or a few) and support this terrific family winery.

We ate lunch on the Chilean coast at a quaint little family-run seafood shack, where I had machas a la parmigiana, and my husband had scallops pil pil. The food was delicious (if a little heavy), and the scenery couldn't be beat - perched atop a craggy cliff overlooking a small patch of beachy sand and the gorgeous blue of the Pacific.

Later that night, we had dinner in Santiago at Akarana, a restaurant near our hotel. We ate barbecued calamari with sour mangoes and a crunchy vegetable slaw of carrots and scallions, flatbread pizza made with chorizo, sweet peppers and camembert, and, the next day for lunch, lamb chops with mint-flavored goat cheese and portobello mushrooms (buttery, tender and absolutely amazing) at Happening.

Santiago felt to us like any American city - bustling, commerce-centric, and well-developed, with wide roads in a grid pattern, crosswalks, and typical businesses and cafes lining the business district. This was opposed to Buenos Aires, which felt to us much more European than American.

Next stop: Easter Island.