|
With Wineworldtour starting in January and the warmest temperatures to be found in the southern summer,
we were happy to feast on the sunny savours of Chile. We enjoyed our daily intake of fresh fruit-juice,
a choice of pear, melon, watermelon, raspberry or chirimoya.
The flowers of the eucalyptus tree and
the mimosas were blooming and gracing the streets of Santiago with their perfumes.
In the shade of
the city’s many parks, we learnt about the history of the first vineyards planted in the 16th century
by the Spanish conquistadores. Reading Pablo Neruda’s odes was also a refreshing delight.
|
|
After attending aseminar on wine and marketing, at the Universidad Catolica
organized by theWine MBA of Bordeaux, our great escapade started among the artists’ workshops of Bellavista.
In the wine bars of this colorful district, we were offered pleasant choices:
to accompany an ensalada chilena and a guacamole,
a decision had to be made, to go for either a stimulating pisco sour,
a fresh sauvignon blanc from Miguel Torres, a crispy chardonnay from Aquitania or an appealing cabernet sauvignon from Casa Lapostolle?
|
|
It is aboard a bus - our main means of transport during the three months spent
in South America - on the Panamericana that we headed towards the countryside
through fruit orchards and fields of grasses.
In the villages on the way, we were taught during happy meetings how to cook the
local specialities such as: empanadas, pasteles de choclo and humitas.
Then, the wide median region, el Valle Central, took us on its wine roads, that is the Chilean Rutas
del Vino:
in the south of Santiago, Maipo, Rapel and the lovely town of Santa Cruz, Curicó,
Colchagua and Maule then, in the west of the capital, Casablanca.
|
|
While walking between the rows, we noticed how privileged the Chilean vineyard was.
Most of the vines were non-grafted and had always been kept out of phylloxera.
The weather conditions were optimum with
a warm and dry Mediterranean climate and a long season of grape maturation.
We got dizzy upside down by contemplating the 18 000 feet of the snowy summits of
the Cordillera.
The crystalline water kept flowing down the Andes to reach the green plain and the vineyards.
That was how the vines were watered thanks to a cunning system of irrigation.
|
|
This ambitious and innovative viticulture claimed a relevant creativity at the image of the country.
The wines of Chile benefited from a successful institutional communication as well.
Oenologists had adopted a way of making wine totally directed toward the end consumer.
Their double technical and commercial responsibility allowed them to increase gradually the
quality of their cuvées and to adapt their range of wines to the export markets.
At Valle Frio, the carménère was Chile’s grape variety flagship.
In the meantime, Santa Emiliana promoted integrated farming and organic growing.
|
|
We continued to the north
of this long strip of land of 4 300 km (or 2 670 miles).
After the vineyards and the indented coastline of Pichilemu, we headed towards the nostalgic harbour and
the picturesque funiculars of Valparaiso.
In the heart of Atacama, the driest desert on Earth, our favorite entertainment consisted
in looking for the majestic flight of the condor and in hurtling down barefoot the
dunes of sand. Then at dawn, we left San Pedro on horseback to admire the exceptional
seismic activity of El Tatio geysers.
|
|
Maipo: Concha y Toro, Odfjell, Aquitania -
Rapel: Los Boldos, Casa Lapostolle, Santa Emiliana -
Curicó: Miguel Torres, San Pedro, Aresti -
Colchagua: Araucano, Los Vascos, Viu Manent -
Maule: Valle Frio, Gilmore -
Casablanca: Veramont, Villard
|
chile
wine festival in Santa Cruz in Rapel valley
chapel of Machuca in the Atacama desert
volcanoes and geysers of Tatio
Pacific coast in Pichilemu
orientations of vines in Curicó valley
Santa Cruz wine shop in Rapel valley
