Sleeping among the vines, Santa Cruz

Last month I drove a couple of hours from Santiago to a fabulous wine region called Santa Cruz. Here we slept among the vines in the Vina Montes guest house.

This luxury, colonial style house is set within the same private estate as Francis Mallman’s Fuegos de Apalta restaurant and it is beautiful!

As soon as walked in we knew we didn’t want to leave.

We’d come here to drink wine and tour the vineyards. But after two hours in the car we were all in desperate need of a little fresh air.

As a mum of three, I even got to sit down for 0.0004 milliseconds.

The Vina Montes guest house is hidden within the estate’s vineyard, down a quiet, dusty lane. The ‘garden’ is never ending, with vines stretching as far as the eye can see.

As one guest said ‘the best thing about this place is that no one knows about it’. So shhh! Keep this one to yourselves.

My kids ran wild, gobbling grapes and giggling so loud that I’m glad we didn’t have any neighbours. Sebastian insisted he won the ‘who can turn their tongue purple first?’ game.

The Vina Montes guest house is crazy good value when you do the sums (three bedrooms, six beds, three bathrooms, all for $135,000 CLP per night).

Despite a summer heat so intense it could scorch the soles of your flip flops, the guest house felt pleasantly cool. Outside it was a different story. Apart from the occasional flutter of a breeze among the vines, it was too hot to stay out for long.

In any case, after a lot of red wine and even more fresh air, I was exhausted and called it an early night.

The bed sheets were so soft I melted into wonderful slumber. Yes, I’m a bed linen geek. I loved the sheets so much I bought the same set for my home. (They’re from Lourdes, FYI)

The next morning we were all up bright and early. We’d booked to go grape stomping in another vineyard nearby. I was dreading the 6.30am wake up, but was greeted with this…

and this.

Our host Guillermo was as chilled as a Sauvignon and let us enjoy a late check out.

Still, we didn’t linger as we’d booked lunch in perhaps the best restaurant in Santa Cruz, Fuegos de Apalta. The restaurant is within the same grounds as the guest house, or as Sebastian put it, ‘in our garden’.

It was a fun weekend away and I’d love to go back. Sebastian planted many grape seeds, so we need to visit his garden anyway, I guess.

The Montes Guest House sleeps six and costs from $135,000 CLP / £130 GBP per night. To book visit Montes Guest House on Airbnb.

For lunch at Fuego de Apalta +56 722605190 / reservas@fuegosdeapalta.com

For tours and other activities at Vina Montes visit monteswines.com