1. Passport. Here’s the link to the U.S. government page.
2. As always, pack as lightly as possible. If you can get everything into a carry-on and shoulder bag, do. If you are a lady, think black knit and roll everything up, stuffing underwear into shoes and then putting shoes in a bag to keep things nice. If you are a guy, what are you worrying about? Your standard chinos, Continue reading “Top 10 Tips on Traveling to Chile”
Green, rough, bitter—for a hard-working grape, carignan shoulders an awful lot of insults. And it’s true the prolific variety, traditionally used in reds from France’s Languedoc region, has produced a lot of undistinguished wine.
But lately, carignan has been coming in for artisanal treatment, notably at the hands of winemakers in Chile who are keeping the prodigious variety’s vigor in check and producing rich, flavorful wines.
Part of the secret is age. Carignan was planted more than 60 years ago in Chile, meaning those vines are now old, which naturally represses production and develops complexity.
Old bush, head-pruned vines and traditional dry-farming in the Maule Valley, where much of Chile’s carignan grows, further checks growth, producing more intense berries with softer tannins.
“Carignan from old vines is something very wonderful. Carignan from young vines is coarse and simple,” says Derek Mossman-Knapp, founder of Garage Wine Co. in Sausal, Chile.
Carignan, which hails from Spain and is grown in the Mediterranean region of France, contributes deep color to wine, but packs a tannic punch and can be high in alcohol. It ripens late in the season and is prone to mildew—not a problem in the dry, hot Maule Valley, located about 180 miles south of Santiago.
In the past, carignan has often been blended in to other red varietals, to jazz up the color and extract. But the new carignan champions say the grape is perfectly capable of standing alone.
“Carignan really does speak for itself,” says Mossman-Knapp. Old-vine carignan, made in the traditional style and not smothered in oak, is a table-friendly wine that evokes an Italian style, he says. “If you have different bottles of wine with food, the carignan will be the first one people finish—and then, uncannily, someone will ask: ’What the heck is carignan?’”
The history of carignan in Chile is an open question, says Arnaud Hereu, winemaker at Odfjell Vineyards in Chile’s Maipo Valley. “When and how it arrived in Chile? We are one of several wineries trying to find out.”
Odfjell bet on carignan early, bottling it as a 100 percent varietal in its Orzada wine since 2001. They also use carignan for blending. “The acidity, the color, the flavor help the wine a lot,” Hereu said in an e-mail.
Chile isn’t the only site of the carignan comeback. There are a handful of old vineyards in California, including the Evangelho vineyard in Contra Costa County and Garzini Ranch in Mendocino County.
Those vines have been getting more attention, says Artezin winemaker Randle Johnson, who makes two carignans (which is often spelled “carignane” in California), one from each vineyard.
Carignan has “kind of ridden the coattails for the black fruit wave, where we have let California fruit hang on the vine longer.” Johnson says. Ripe carignan migrates from the red fruit to black fruit camp and “we get more fruit expression, more complexity and we get better tannins.”
Even in the Languedoc, where carignan was originally grown because it is a big yielder, some winemakers are producing better quality wines from old-vine carignan.
What’s next for carignan?
With the rise in popularity, carignan grapes have become more expensive and there is a limited amount of old-vine, dry-farmed carignan available. So, it’s not likely to become a high-volume wine, says Hereu. But even at small volumes it could become an important symbol of the Chilean wine industry. “When you make a carignan, you are far away from the general opinion that a consumer may have about Chile—you know, good wine, good price, big volume. If huge wineries are spending time and money to make 500 cases of carignan, I think it is because it is important.”
Mossman-Knapp, a member of MOVI , Chile’s Movement of Independent Vintners, thinks old-vine dry-farmed carignan from Maule will help Chile make a name and break out of its image of being a reliable but not necessarily exciting producer of good-value wine. “This is something to me that Chile, the Maule, could do better than any other producer on Earth,” he says.
1. Passport. Here’s the link to the U.S. government page.
2. As always, pack as lightly as possible. If you can get everything into a carry-on and shoulder bag, do. Think black knit and roll everything up, stuffing underwear into shoes and then putting shoes in a bag to keep everything nice. Note: the official sizes of carry-ons seems to be shrinking. My 21-incher did not make the cut on international flights. Of course there were the usual boors who somehow managed to haul on enormous suitcases, braining people on either side of the aisles as they waddled along. But you don’t want to be one of them. Weather conditions vary. Think layers. Traveling in the Chilean spring, I was glad of my packable rain coat which kept out cool, coastal breezes. Long-sleeved T-shirts with a zip jacket and Capri pants/modest skirts were the right compromise for cool mornings and warm afternoons. Leggings or tights under the skirt worked for night. California casual chic worked fine, although I did notice the business people of Santiago were sharp dressers.
3. If you are bringing electrical devices, be aware that the current in Chile is different from the U.S., 220v/50h vs 110v/60h, and the plugs are shaped differently, too. So you will need both an adaptor for the plug, small and cheap, and a larger device to moderate the current, bigger and less cheap. My solution was to count on finding hair dryers in the relatively upscale hotels I stayed in, which there were, and to take only my iPad, which can run on either current, and adaptors I got from the Apple store, no doubt at a wildly inflated price. It turns out I could have just borrowed adaptors at the hotel. Also, a note to smart phone users. Unless you have/buy some type of international plan, it is very important to turn off roaming capability if you do not want to get stung with fantastically expensive bills. Just to be on the safe side, I kept my phone off except for times when I was in an area with free wifi (wee-fee in Chile, fyi), in which case I turned that on but turned off all the update, “push data” settings so my phone wouldn’t run up a tab getting the latest tweak of Fruit Ninja.
4. The flight to Chile from the United States is long. You will thank yourself later if you bring a stout pair of socks to put on, ditching your shoes, and an oversize sweatshirt/hoodie to cozy up in. If you are of the feminine persuasion I recommend wearing underpinnings that are short on style, long on stretch. Put a stretch knit dress or tunic-leggings combo on over that and you’ll still look reasonably smart. (Please note: Just because you could just wear sweats doesn’t meant you should.)
5. First thing you do when you get off the plane in Santiago, which is where you’ll most likely land, is pay the reciprocity tax. This is equal to what Chileans have to pay to visit the U.S. and as of October 2010 was $140. It’s good for the life of your passport. They take credit cards. The lines can be a bit free-form; be alert for swiftly moving queues.
6. Visa: this is required; flight attendants will give you a form to fill out on the plane _ no big deal. BUT, the other form you have to complete, attesting to the fact that you are not bringing in plant or animal goods is a big deal. The list of forbidden items is long and comprehensive. Lots of things count, including those chocolate covered peanuts you forgot you had stuck in the pocket of your carry-on. The fine is substantial if you get caught. Best bet is to mark “yes” if you have any doubts at all and then describe the items in question to the customs officials.
7. Which brings us to language. A lot of the people I met on my recent whirlwind trip of Chile spoke English, some amazingly well. But if you have any high school Spanish that you can brush up in the weeks before your visit do so. For one thing, it may come in handy, if, let’s say, you have to do some chatting at the Aduana (Customs) checkpoint. For another thing, it’s fun to try to communicate in another language. Even if, as I did, you do tell a tableful of people that you are full of “mierda”, (crap, to put it politely) when you meant, “miedo”, fear.
8. Food. Get ready to eat some fantastic seafood. A great place in Santiago is La Mar, Av Nueva Costanera 3922, Vitacura, Santiago. This is actually Peruvian cuisine. The ceviche was super, the congrio, a local fish, was simple and so tasty. La Mar has a few locations around the world, including one in San Francisco, I’m going to have to try that one and see how it compares.
9. Visit. If you are in Santiago, the Mercado Central is worth a visit.
10. The really key thing: Have a pisco sour for me!Salud!
In ancient times, map-makers wrote “Finis Terrae,” world’s end, on the spot now known as Chile. With the Earth being flat, clearly this was where the unwary traveler would go a step too far and fall off.
Luckily, nothing like that has happened to me, yet, although there have been some rather complicated turns involving big buses and small roads. The kind of operation where one guy gets out to wave his hands about while the other guy drives and you sit there saying, ever so politely, “I don’t mind getting out and walking. Really I don’t.”
I did learn a new phrase: Camino sinuoso, or winding road. Sounds better in Spanish, doesn’t it?
Anyway, there have been quite a few discoveries at the end of these particular long and winding roads, including some wines I tried at the Valdevieso winery at their vineyards in the Sagrada Familia district about an hour south of Santiago.
A standout was a 2010 single-vineyard sauvignon blanc, which went well with a local dish I tried, criadillas, served chopped and in a spicy broth. What are criadillas? Well, they’re a part of the bull, let’s put it that way.
So here I am tasting some nice wines and crossing a gustatory Rubicon or two. Who says I don’t know how to live on the edge?