Have you ever tried a blue wine? How about wines aged with meteorites or to the sound of music? You can find all these unique experiences and more in the Rapel Valley.
Visiting the Rapel Valley
The Rapel Valley is the wine regional label for wines sourced from the Cachapoal and Colchagua Valleys. It’s named after the Rapel River and Reservoir which is the confluence of the Cachapoal River, which runs south east through the Cachapoal Valley in the north, and the Tinguiririca River, which runs south all the way through the Colchagua Valley in the south. However, the two valleys practically overlap, so some producers find it more convenient to label their wines “Rapel Valley” if the grapes are sourced from both. It’s a label I see less often though since producers love to highlight their specific vineyards and sub-appellations when they can to add value to the wine.
The hub of the Colchagua Valley, the southern part of the Rapel Valley, is the city of Santa Cruz. I wrote about our previous stay in the Colchagua Valley, including visiting Clos Apalta, here if you want more information. Wine lovers coming from Santiago will most likely take Highway 5, where you can take detours first to visit wineries around Isla de Maipo to the west or as you go further down Alto Cachapoal to the East. However, you can take the 66 going west to check out a couple of other Cachapoal wineries or further off the 66 to the secluded but iconic Viña Vik.
Pichilemu
As you get closer to Santa Cruz, there are a few wineries on the east side of Colchagua from Highway 5 like Casa Silva and Morande, but most of the wineries are along Highway 90, which runs west to Santa Cruz and then northwest to wineries closer to the coast in Peralillo and Marchigue. If you keep going west, you’ll eventually reach the surf capital of Chile, Pichilemu.
Although you could go as far as Santa Cruz as a long day trip, I recommend staying in the countryside along the 90 or 66. Even though you can find almost all the Rapel wines in any wine shop or supermarket in Santiago, you just get a much more relaxed, isolated atmosphere in the countryside compared to the closer Maipo and Casablanca Valleys. If you really explore, you might also find traditional wines like Chicha and Chacolí too. Since this was our second time staying in Santa Cruz, I tried to find unique wine and food experiences.
Drinking Blue Wine Under the Stars
Stargazing is a great activity when visiting Chile. Outside of Santiago, there’s very little light pollution, lots of hills to get unobstructed views and there are observatories throughout the country. Plus, the southern hemisphere has different constellations than the northern. The best observatories to visit are around La Serena in the Elqui Valley where you can combine Pisco & wine tasting during the day with stargazing at night. In the Cachapoal Valley, you can do both at the same time.
Off highway 66 in Cachapoal, there is the Tagua Tagua Observatory. The observatory functions as an educational tourist attraction, so it’s set up with a 3-D video theater and telescopes. In addition, they run an astronomy camp for children. It’s all under the direction of scientist Ian Hutcheon. 
Combining his passion for astronomy and wine, they produce 3 astronomy inspired wines in addition to a dessert chocolate wine (here’s their online store). The chocolate wine is a Merlot with Swiss chocolate and cocoa filtered in during its vinification. At the observatory you get to touch a piece of a real meteorite, but they also use another meteorite in one of their barrels to age their Cabernet Sauvignon. They also produce a Carmenere-Merlot that is aged in a dome with the sound of cosmic waves converted into audio representation of an object in space like the planet Jupiter. Finally, they make a blue wine, which looks like it should be served in a bar from the film Star Wars. You get to taste one of these wines with your visit to the observatory and they are all available for purchase with snacks. By the way, these wines should not be confused with Bodegas Tagua Tagua, which is a wine producer 25 minutes south of the observatory.
Angelic Wines & Vineyard Immersion
Viña Montes is certainly not off the beaten track. It’s located in the famous Apalta sub-appellation near Santa Cruz. Plus, it’s one Chile’s most popular labels domestically and internationally. However, visiting their winery is a whole other experience. 
First of all, if you take a tour with them, you can experience their famous cellar where their top wines age in barrel to the vibrations of Gregorian chants. Similar to Observatorio Tagua Tagua wines aging to the sound of the cosmos or Viña Inedita Terroir Sonoro wines aging to vibrations of rock and jazz, there are some producers like Montes who believe musical vibrations help a wine age better. If you take their Icono tour, you can taste one of their top wines aged with Gregorian chants like Purple Angel, Alpha M, or Folly. 
Even better, you can experience any of their wines (including back vintages 10+ years old) along with some other Colchagua wines at their world class restaurant Fuegos de Apalta. The restaurant is literally in the middle of their vineyard, so you can see the vines that grew the grapes that went into your wine right next to you, especially if you order one specifically from their Apalta estate.
Fuegos de Apalta Wood Fire Kitchen
In addition, the menu of the restaurant was designed by famous Argentinian chef, Francis Mallmann, who uses traditional Patagonian fire based cooking to make fancy yet rustic dishes. In fact, it’s a new trend in haute-cuisine to master burning food, which adds a unique flavor and gives the food an amazing crust. However, for Francis Mallmann, it’s the most ancient way of cooking that’s internalized in our DNA as humans (see video about his history).
Tasting Notes
2015 Ian Hutcheon’s Meteorito Taste the Stars Cabernet Sauvignon
This is aged with an actual meteorite found 400 years ago in the Atacama desert which impacted the earth around 6000 years ago. The tasting notes are fairly standard Chilean Cab especially on the nose but there’s a bit more acidity than average and a fairly long, savory, minerally finish. Medium+ body. Mild tannins. 90
NV Atrapa Cielo Blue Harvest
The color is sort of in between Star Command Blue and Pacific Blue. This is a late harvest Moscatel with a bit of Spirulina (a blue-green algae) which makes it blue. The nose is rather typical of Moscatel with native yeasts. Floral and herbal. The palate is round, thick and sweet. It lacks acidity. It tastes too much like blue cotton candy for me although the blue coloring doesn’t impart any flavor I think, so perhaps it’s my imagination based on the view, but it’s just too sweet for me either way. I won’t rate it. It’s more of a novelty wine while the Meteorito is a rather standard Chilean red.
2022 Montes Outer Limits CGM Apalta Colchagua
(50 Carignan, 30 Grenache, 20 Mourvedre) 50/50 French oak (2-3 use) and concrete) – Screw cap. Ordered at Fuegos de Apalta the restaurant inside Viña Montes surrounded by the vines that go into many of their wines. This one comes from the west corner of the vineyard and is visible from our table in the restaurant. The nose has a nice combo of red fruit, meatiness, tomato leaf and mild oak notes. The palate is medium-bodied with red berry fruit, a touch of spice with good acidity. Overall, the palate is more fruit-driven than the nose, especially with the meat. 92
2022 Montes Alpha Syrah Colchagua
Montes blends some Cabernet S. and Viognier in this Syrah. 12 months in 1st and 2nd used oak. This manages to be typical Syrah with meaty and peppery notes but it hovers between modern and old world although I generally categorize Montes’ wines as modern styled, closer to California. There’s a bit of oak spice and lots of ripe juicy fruit, but there’s acidity and some tannic structure too. The alcohol is kept in check. 91