Day 5 May 12, 2011: The Winery and LAN

Today started with a visit to Vina Indomita, a winery.  The tour guide told us all about the vineyard surrounding the winery, and where each of the different grapes were grown as well as what wine they’re used to make.  The vineyard surrounding the winery as actually used for growing the white grapes, as the climate is more suitable for white grapes to be grown.  They have another vineyard in Maipo Valley where they grow all of their red grapes.  After learning about the cultivation of the grapes, we headed inside to see the workings of the winery.  We got to see everything from the large steel tanks used in the initial production to the cellar where the barrels of reserve wines are stored.  At the end of the tour we got to participate in a wine tasting.  We sampled one white and two red wines.  We were instructed how to properly taste the wine in three stages.  Examining the color, smelling the aromas of the wine, and then tasting it.  My favorite was actually the white wine, to me it had the perfect amount of acidity and sweetness.  After the winery we made a stop for lunch at a restaurant that served typical Chilean food.  It was a good experience.  Then we headed to tour LAN, a major Latin American airline.  It was really cool to see the behind the scenes of an airline company, where they do all their repairs and inspections of the aircraft.  The hangars for the jets were absolutely massive.  We even got to go inside of one of their newest jets.  It was weird to be in an airplane when I wasn’t actually flying anywhere, but I got to have my picture taken in the cockpit and spend some time in business class.  The tour overall was a lot of fun.