Today was full of cultural whiplash and varied between being extremely fun and emotionally intense.
After a morning of lectures about the Chilean economy and environment, we went out to see a vineyard, learn about a process that has become a huge part of the Chilean economy in recent years & taste some wines.
Being outside of Santiago was really eye opening. The huge gaps in income and access in Chile are apparent before you even get out of the city, but the countryside in many ways surprised me how low the standard of living appeared for many campesinos. While Chile’s neoliberal economy has been lauded by many, it was fascinating to finally have a visual image of those who have been left behind by growth or who it could be argued are exploited by growth.
On a lighter note, today I had the best meal of my entire life (Sorry Mom!) at San Martino Vineyards where we had a fabulous wine tasting with a huge lunch. The vineyards have been family owned from their initiation, feature artisanal wines and are the only carbon neutral vineyard in South America.
Our wines included:
-Carmenere- from a type of grape that grows exceptionally well in Chile
-Cabernet Sauvignon
-Cabernet Blanc- The best white wine I’ve ever had! I’m not usually a big fan of whites, but this was simply exquisite.
Our tremendously large meal included:
-cerviche: a seafood dish flavored with citrus
-queso fresco- very fresh and delicious seeds
-soup made from a puree of different vegetables
-avocados covered in sesame seeds & tomatoes flavored with lemon
-pan amasada- sort of like a biscuit
-canelones- pasta filled with cheese and jaiva, sweetwater crab that is unique to Chile
-Bouef bourgeon
asparagus
salad with watercress
And for dessert...
-Torta de lucuma- a sumptious treat with merengue and lucuma, a fruit from the North of Chile
-Torta de frambuesa- raspberry tart
-Mousse de mote con huesillos- A unique mousse version of a traditional Chilean dessert drink with peaches and a special grain
-truffle with coconut
-espresso

After touring the wine production on the property, we went to Paine, a community which was proportionally affected the most by the violence of the Pinochet dictatorship. 70 of the 2000 people in the town were "disappeared", mainly because they were active in agrarian land reform moments, which greatly challenged rural social structures. The citizens of the town have created a deeply intimate and personal monument to their desaparecidos, whose fate in many cases remains unknown. We met with one of them, whose father was taken and she explained the moment to us. The design of the monument was very symbolic. 1930 poles of varying heights represent la cordillera (the Andes), as well as the varying ages of the community. 70 poles are missing to represent missing community members. Instead, 70 mosaics, designed by surviving family members stand in memory of those lost. Finally, a tree planted in the center symbolizes how life continues, even in the midst of horrors and uncertainty.
Today reminded me of how much blood has been spilled over the right to have land, whether a simple personal plot or struggles for an entire nation. When you focus on the sadness of a single individual, the big pictures reasons and explanations for conflict make less and less sense.
In the last part of the day, we went to a Mapuche (original people’s) modern dance performance. Despite taking place in what our program’s academic director referred to as a “outdoor experimental shed,” the performance featured very modern lighting, video and audio effects, that included the Mapuche language. The dancing was simultaneously beautiful, fierce, weird and engaging. Seeing how we’ve been talking a ton about the importance of class in Chile, I was really fascinating by the audience, which featured people who were definitely lower class and of Mapuche descent, college students, upper class people and a few children. It really surprised me to see such a wide cross section at one event; it’s not really something you would ever see in the States.
that food looks soooo goood!! i just finished eating and i'm already hungry now! :)
ReplyDeleteHow does the world really get connected, or maybe a better question is how did people around the globe connect long before the internet? I found this description of some of the wine you were enjoying down there and found it quite interesting horticulturally, viticulturally, and simply historically. I'll save my discussion of the great European Phylloxera outbreak for when you get back home!
ReplyDeleteFollowing taken from winepros.org varietals profile:
Carmenère
Historically, Carmenère has been difficult to grow in cold, humid climates, and, although this is one of the most ancient varieties in Bordeaux, plantings have not been maintained even in this region, let alone any other in France, or for that matter, anywhere in Europe!
Carmenère requires more heat to ripen than the other varietals planted in Bordeaux. This and its erratic tendency to develop a condition called coulure, poor fruit set after flowering, may have caused Carmenère to fall out of favor there.
At one time, Carmenère was prized in the Medoc for both its depth of color and, in ripe years, flavor that can range from herbal to gamy and add complexity and interest to blends. Carmenère berries have a fairly high juice-to-skin ratio and tend to produce wines that are not as astringent as Cabernet Sauvignon. An inclination to have high content of methoxypyrazine can make some Carmenère wines overly vegetative.
Thought to be the antecedent of other better-known varietals, some think Carmenère is possibly a long-established clone of Cabernet Sauvignon. The Bordeaux synonym for Carmenère is Grand Vidure and Cabernet Sauvignon is also known there simply as Vidure. Some suggest that Carmenère may be Biturica, the vine of not only ancient Roman praise, but also the word then used to call the city that became Bordeaux.
Carmenère was imported to South America in the 1850s, along with other Bordeaux varieties, prior to the European outbreak of Phylloxera. The largest established vineyards of this variety are in Chile, although many of these were misidentified as Merlot (the two vines share many similarities) for more than a century. French ampelographer Jean Michel Bousiquot discovered the truth in 1994.
In 2009, two of Chile's leading universities, with funding from Viña Casa Silva (a major producer), began a two-year study of Carmenère. The research seeks causes and cures for the grape's undesirable tendencies of poor fruit set, late ripening, and high pyrazine content. The project has identified more than 60 clones, with wide variations of these characteristics.
There may soon be something of a resurgence in plantings of Carmenère. In California, the virtual rescue and revival of this cultivar was the result of a twelve-year quest by Karen Mulander-Magoon, co-proprietor of the Guenoc and Langtry Estates in Lake County. Cuttings of the cultivar had to survive three years of quarantine and testing in Canada and New York, prior to admission and planting in California in the late 1990s.