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Chile Wine Experience with a Chile Holiday
Posted in Wine ExperiencesWe know you appreciate delicious food and fine wine because they bring a real sense of the place into your home. Obviously that appreciation, whether you’re a diehard wine enthusiast or just a fan, will be enhanced if you experience your favourite wine region at first hand. We think the best way to do just that is a tour or package that gives you the space and time to walk through a wine region, drinking in the atmosphere and sampling the local food as well as tasting the wines. Wine buffs are an individualistic lot, and prefer travelling with a small group at their own pace with experienced local guides for an intimate insight that will improve the appreciation of the wine they drink.
Discover Chilean wine with a holiday to Chile
Active holidays that give this degree of space and time were made for Chile, a country blessed with a unique geography. It’s long and thin with the high Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west and a climate moderated by the cool Humbolt Current rising up from Antarctica. There’s a huge diversity in soils and climates in the relatively short distance from east to west and the character of a Chilean wine is mainly influenced by its proximity to the Andes or the Pacific rather than the terroir’s distance north or south in the country.
Chilean Wine – a very brief history
Chile was never affected by the 19th century phylloxera epidemic and offers ideal conditions for a very broad range of grape varieties including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Carmenere varietal (a rich red) is unique to Chile. It is also the ideal location for walking holidays as you only have to go a very short distance to experience dramatic changes in scenery and climate.
Chile Holidays will not only introduce you to a superb range of wine, but also give you a flavour of Chilean cuisine. Aside from a fantastic range of seafood (Chile has over 4,000km of coast), typical mainland Chilean dishes include Pastel de Choclo, a summer dish similar to shepherd’s pie made from ground corn and meat, chopped onions small pieces of chicken, olives and raisins.
Eat Chile, Drink Chile!
Curanto en Hoyo is a typical dish from the south of Chile prepared by heating fish, seafood, potatoes, meat and bread over red hot rocks then wrapping the tasty parcels in leaves and burying them in the ground so that they slowly cook over a number of hours.
