We went on an excursion today to Emiliana, a 100% organic vineyard. It was a lot of fun; beautiful scenery, delicious wine, good company. The vineyard keeps lots of chickens around to eat insects, and they plant flowers to distract the rest. There isn't much of a problem with fungus on the crops here in Chile, so there's little chance of a blight. Perfect for organic, but they said since nobody in Chile much cares about organic they export 95% or so of what they make. The soil has to be cleaned for 5 - 7 years before qualifying as organic. It really made me realize that if grapes take so much soil into themselves, and then the product comes out as a concentration of that soil that you can actually taste, if you use pesticides and chemicals on the grapes you are guaranteed to be drinking concentrated chemicals. That sort of creeped me out, so I especially had to get at least one or two bottles.
There is a blend of 6 different reds among their selections: it's called Coyam, a Mapuche word for "group of oaks". It contains Syrah, Carmenére, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre, and Malbec. I had to grab that. It's unique but so smooth! I also got a white (I love a good white, but usually they're too sweet or bitter for me) but it is a Chardonnay/Marsanne/Viognier, which was really tasty and not bitter, but not too sweet. Sorry I'm not up on all the wino terminology to be more specific!
There was also one wine we didn't have the opportunity to sample that sounded amazing. They call it "biodynamic" process, and they basically use hydroponics and advanced growing theory to make these organic superplants, and I really stopped listening there because my mind was boggled. It would be lovely to drink I'm sure, but it was quite out of my budget.
Isla Negra was gorgeous. Neruda's house is right above the beach, and the way the waves crash against the black rock is perfect. Perfect! His bedroom has such a lovely view, it must have been so romantic. It's easy to imagine that he did a lot of his work looking out over the sea, since so much of his imagery really fits this place. It was a really odd little museum, and I have to wonder- if the Pinochet regime raided and destroyed at least some portion of the house, how in the world they salvaged things. I stood right where he stood in his living room, according to a photo. For some reason that made me feel like pretty cool beans indeed.
I soon realized that drinking at least 4 glasses of wine before lunch is a bad idea, and am now recovering from a headache. As a result, I am not going out tonight and instead am sitting around drinking liquids to stave off any further damage. Will post pics later!
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