Mas viño por favor . . . Ventisquero!

Lucky me, I got to go on a field trip with the students! Their curriculum includes tours to Chilean companies, and Friday´s was a wine company. As it was going to be a full day trip, Tim got permission from the school for me to come along. (Didn´t feel bad about going along because some of the Dookie students decided to skip - stinks for them!)

We took a 2 hour bus ride to the south, into the Maipo valley. (There are several other wine producing valleys of Chile, and many wineries have land in more than one of them to diversify their wines.) The winery was called Ventisquero, a relatively new company with a huge, very modern facility. We were able to tour the area where they process the grapes, ferment the wines (in huge metal vats), age the gran reserva and premium wines in oak barrels, and the bottling area. All were really neat, especially the bottling process - the automated corking and labeling. Cool! Except for the hairnets.

As we were there for ¨business¨, they gave us a lecture on their marketing strategies and showed some of their advertising campaigns from the past. Being that it all was in Chilean spanish, it was very difficult to follow, but seeing the ads was interesting. They explained how most of their best wines are not yet sent to the states, and they re-brand and re-label their varietals before sending them out to the states, to target Americans.

Then we got back on the bus and they took us way out on the vineyard in a shady grove for winetasting and lunch. When we got out of the bus, the smells from the barbecue were mouthwatering. First, though, we had the tasting of a saviugnon blanc and a carmenere led by one of their winemakers! Got to try some really good wine, and learned a little about how to taste it. Then . . lunch at a beautifully set long table . . . a buffet of very typical chilean food. As I have heard it described, very simple but good. Grilled pork and chicken, a rice and vegetable salad, sliced tomatoes and onions, and quarter heads of lettuce. Don´t forget a postre for dessert. How cool was this?

Well then, of course, we were set for a ride home including a nap! But not before we were able to buy some of their wines for wholesale. ;)

Later on in the evening, Alberto, a full time student originally from Germany, had organized a party and barbecue on the rooftop of another classmates apartment building. Met several other students, some from Chile and Colombia, had some good pisco sour, and some not so good pisco, and some delicious chorizo (spicy sausage). I have never enjoyed grilled sausage in the states as I have here!