The Search is On
Never, never, never, never give up.
—Winston Churchill
We declared to each other in 2015 that Chile was THE place. We stopped taking long vacations to Europe and started taking vineyard scouting trips to Chile. We took two in 2015. Three in 2016. Two more in 2017. Another in 2018. More in 2019. I took trips with my sister-in-law; Tony took trips with my brother. We took trips together and took trips alone. So. Many. Trips.
We traveled down countless dirt roads and looked at innumerable potential properties. We looked at beachside properties and inland farms. We checked out large vineyards and small, empty plots of land. We visited expensive (overpriced) plots and cheap, undervalued lots. We spoke to a number of different realtors and Tony inquired into many listings. We knew what we wanted—a place big enough for a vineyard with a hillside view and water rights. Any buildings or vines in place would be a bonus. Our budget was malleable. We knew the place existed and so we never gave up looking. We relished our journeys to Chile to hunt for properties; we didn’t find them defeating in any way. This attitude kept us going.
On a March trip to Santa Cruz in 2019, we noticed an American group staying at our hotel and what appeared to be a local leading them around. We went to Fuegos de Apalta and they were there. We stopped at Ventisquero and they were there. Then while exiting the car at the hotel, the guy in charge said “Hey, I see you guys everywhere. You should just buy some property here.” Those words changed our everything.
Francisco Poblete runs Colchagua Wine Tours with his wife, Connie. He was escorting the group and made the comment. Once we told him we were, in fact, looking for a property the prospects became real. Francisco returned to our hotel at breakfast the next morning with a potential property. Here was this virtual stranger who had gone way out of his way to make contacts for us who was now driving us to see it. And while Manolo’s hillside property and vineyard became our first offer on a place, it was not where we settled. After a few more visits and meetings to hash things out, the price increased and the value decreased. But our efforts to find a vineyard property in Chile never faltered.
Tony, Tripp, Adriana, and even my dad looked seriously at another hillside property. It had many merits, but was also a hefty price for the value.
Francisco stayed in the conversation and in December of 2019 alerted us to some plots for sale in Chepica. On a hill with a view. Not too expensive. Raw land with loads of potential. Sounded promising. We visited in January of 2020 and made an offer. They accepted. We started talking to nurseries about grapevines to plant in the summer. We spoke with companies who specialized in water reclamation projects. We forged ahead with all our plans to develop El Zapal (the hill even had a name) and planned to come back in March to finalize things. Then the world changed. The day before our flight to Chile, Covid shut everything down. Chile closed its borders. The sellers originally said no worries, we will extend the contract, no problem. They were understanding and accommodating—until February of 2021. While we could not visit, the sellers demanded we close on the sale. Not knowing when we could return, and not having done all our due diligence, we had no choice but to forfeit our deposit.
We did not forfeit our dream though. While Tony didn’t look online at properties as often, and we didn’t zoom with Francisco and Connie as frequently, we still hoped to someday own a place in Chile. And in June of 2022, we found the place. It has everything we had spent multiple years in search of—a hill with a stunning view, an established vineyard, water, proximity to town and other vineyards, even some existing buildings. It seemed too good to be true, yet now it is ours.