Pirque Wine Festival and Concha y Toro

We recently went to the annual wine festival here and enjoyed it immensely. Pirque and the surrounding area is home to many(20?) vineyards. We live near the Concha y Toro Pirque vineyards(drive by going to town). The festival was lots of fun, many wines to taste and complimentary wine glass-for $5000 pesos, hehe. I forgot my camera-darn it. We ran into some friends and we all tasted and tasted(and many vineyards had an English speaking representative). There's a lot of wine here and it's all good. The climate here is perfect and vines here were originally imported from France , largely because there was a disease there killing the old grapevines so to protect them, some were sent to Chile.

Lots of food and booths and interesting things for sale. People in this area don't seem to preserve/can foods at home(like mom so many years ago back in Montana) but at the booths there were a number of women selling pretty jars of various strange canned fruit with spicy additives such as garlic. Odd combinations and fun to look at. But I don't want my fruit with garlic. The local artisans had an array of carved and homemade items-I couldn't resist the older lady who had made little monk outfit wine covers. Or the man who had made little wood stoves(everyone has one here) that actually had smoke coming out the stove pipe(little incense burners).

There was rides for the children and food everywhere. Everyone seemed happy and many carried a glass of wine around. I could have stayed into the evening but we didn't and missed the dancing later on.

http://www.fiestadelvinodepirque.cl/index.html

We also finally took a tour(last week) at Concha y Toro, which we drive by almost daily. Very strange to see the same field from inside instead of outside. We visited the famous devil's cellar but what I didn't realize is that the cellar(made in the old way of bricks and mortar) is the same (cold) temperature as above which is cooled in a modern fashion(with evaporative coolers). The field we drive by on our way home is actually a field of cabernet grapes and is one of their best, the guide says-slated for the best wine. The grapes are tiny and sweet(yes, she encouraged us to taste).

Concha y Toro sells wine for everyone. They sell everything from boxed wine to Don Melchor(their most expensive wine). And Don Melchor is the wine actually kept in the old cellar, not the Casillero del Diablo that bears the name. I have to say they don't make a bad red wine.

The original mansion built on the grounds had 20 bedrooms which are now offices and has French period architecture everywhere, many statues on the grounds, which I believe she said is 58 acres. The Concha y Toro Vineyard was founded by Melchor Santiago de Concha y Cerda and his wife, Emiliana Subercaseaux, in 1883. To start the winery, he brought grape varieties from the Bordeaux region in France.

Commerce in Chile

Commerce here-wine! Mmmmm. You can find lots of Chilean wine there too. The Pirque house is very close to Concho Y Toro. which is perhaps the biggest and oldest in Chile. The wine here is unbelievably cheap. Fruit-you guys get many of Chile's fruit in the winter too. There are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere you look and stopping there is really fun. We load up on everything for around 5000 pesos($10). Avocados for $2 a kilo(2.25 lbs) but they're much cheaper in season which, I'm told is July(which is deep winter here). Everything else runs $1 to 1.25 a kilo. I've been making soup with all the veggies. They have a few fruits I've never tried-persimmons and pepino(which is the size of a pear and you peel and tastes like melon). Oh and kiwi. There is always fruit, I'm told because they get it from the North(which is desert) and South(which is colder). And nuts-almonds, walnuts. And olives. They have this juice made in Santiago, strawberry and apple the best. Nothing like it that I've tasted, just delicious. And marmalade, very cheap and delicious.

Other commerce is salmon, which is mostly exported-look for it at King Soopers. They also make clothes, just for here I think-haven't shopped much yet beyond the grocery store. The President)Michelle Bachelet)has been setting up trade agreements so I expect more access to varied products. Beef is from Argentina mostly I think. They have no concept of grain fed or feedlots here. The common breed I read can be used for beef or dairy and the owner decides his need! I also read that they are importing some angus beef for restaurants to see if people like it. Beef here is grass fed, which is much leaner but not as tasty as the grain finished beef. We should get very healthy here!

There are many US companies here-Dominos Pizza, ADT alarms, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC/Taco Bell. And they love many US products-they do like to dress pretty much like North Americans but everythings with a twist. Like the pizza has very different ingredients. They love hot dogs-called completos-but with mayonnaise and creamed avocado. Taco Bell has burrito supremes but no nacho chips, instead fries with cheese on it. Only Dorito chips in the store-no other tortilla chips. I can't seem to get enough guacamole with cheap and plentiful avocados & tomatoes. I tried some olive and tomato flavored chips here that they make that were really good. Coca Cola is drunk in every home at every meal-even those that have very little money-don't know how they did that. So, a lot of US business is done here. By the way, they will point out, Chileans are also Americans-you are Norte Americano!

We noticed the Jeep Cherokee we bought here is Canadian made, a little smaller, but gets 38 mpg-the one he had in the states got 22 mpg. Have no idea why yet. His friend is buying a Ford Ranger that is supposed to get 50 mpg. I have heard emissions would make the difference but this Jeep does have a catalytic converter.