Curico, the wine fiesta or how to enjoy a Vindemea on the cheap

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First, I am not in Talca, but Curico. It is so far off the blog and gringo trail that I cannot find its location to list.

So, off to the fiesta in Curico around 50 mins south from Santa Cruz. The owners of weekend and wine/hostel puerto Lindo 134 Oakpass/Ruble are quite lovely. They speak no English but with my limited Spanish told them what I wanted to achieve this weekend and once they got it, it was plain sailing.
So, bus to Curico. Riding through the vineyards of Chile on a public minibus, grapes to the left and right as far as the eye could see.

As I said, Curico itself is well off the gringo trail. A normal working town, very grey and not much to report.
The whole town square had been taken over as a celebration of all things wine. .. The Vindemia. The side streets filled with the usual shite that follow these events around. Balloon sellers, crap clothes and trinkets,walking and barking toy dogs. You know the routine. No matter where you go in the world, if the city puts on an event, the shite sellers will follow.

Stepping around this flotsum and jetsom of carnival life, I found myself in a beautiful tree lined square, the Plaza de Armas. The sun is shining, music is playing and a real family atmosphere. Such a contrast.
There was the crowning of the vindemia queen. A grape stamping competition where two men in a barrel competed against others in a similar situation to crush as many grapes as possible in a limited time, the amount of grape juice they produced being the winner.
One man bands, Chile style thumping out a good beat and prancing around with their kit on their back to out drum each other. People performing the national dance of Chile ´Él Cuaca´, acting out the courting ritual of a rooster to a hen in dance whilst waving a hankie about. Sounds strange but really good fun. Had the makings of a good day.

So to the wine. Rather than having to pay each producer every time you want a glass of their wine, you buy a wine glass and then tickets for the sampling from a central point. There were many yahoo's around all swirling their wine glasses about, smelling, tasting and spitting. So armed with a wine glass and seven tickets ( around 8 quid including glass) and book of adjectives set off the sample for free as much as I could. Much cheaper than visiting a vineyard and more variety.
My heathrow plan mark II was put into operation,perfecting the skills honed with my good friend Tommy Towers whilst spending an afternoon wandering around the shops of Morton in the Marsh some time ago.

First stall, was an independent seller. Was not partof the ticlet scheme, being an independant. Wanted me to buy a whole bottle. In my limited Spanish asked for a sample first. Duly obliged. a liitle too sweet for me though, Overdone but equally undercooked organic wine. Shows whole-wheat sugary bread, intense buttermilk pancakes and atomic traces of cookies. Thanks but no thinks.

Then the the rank of wines, for which the tickets are made for. About 20 producers from around the region to sample and then a few wine yahoo's doing what they do best, talking #ing bollocks stood around sniffing, slurping and spitting. The general public also swarming around at 50 pence a glass of wine enjoying the day.
Some English speakers (Americans) which helped. " so, what am I looking for in a decent wine?" I ask with my glass almost empty. "try this one" they would say and pour me a glass.
Much swirling, sticking nose in and slurping later I was getting somewhat pissed and still had 6 tickets left!
"and what do you taste David". I was so tempted to say "wine, you #ing idiot" but curbed my tongue and mentioned black cherries and vanilla, always a safe bet to compliment a wine. In fact most of the wines I drank, you note the word drank there, not tasted and spat out, were lovely. Full of flavour, some bitter, some complex. e.g Open-ended and fleshy syrah. The first gusts from the neck of the bottle practically blinded me, and I found my mouth puckering up tighter like a G-string pouch. I sipped it respectfully, and it turned into a blackcurranty kind of sluicing, narrowly covering the roof of the mouth, spews vanilla pods, london pride beer and rich roast beef dinner sauce. Ok,ok, Disco, that´s enough. Put down the book of adjectives you are beginning to sound like those twats Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke.

Feeling peckish by now wandered around the many food stalls all trying to convince me to eat from them.
It was a delicious and ate a hearty meal for free. Smoked pork, chicken, bread and olive oil, pizza. Honestly I was stuffed. Some cakes for pudding too.

Sat at table for a cigarette, wine producers trying to do business. My glass almost empty. "would you like to try some of this Clos Andres 2006 Shiraz". How could I say no. Best of the bunch by far. Yum Yum.

By now it was late and I was somewhat pissed. Still had two tickets left! Result! Treated myself to a coffee (made for me), got stuck into a homemade Chilean muffin and then watched a band, Los Bunkers. I must have been pissed because I only realised after 10 minutes that they were playing the same 12 bars over and over and that they were doing a sound check for later that evening. sounded good though.

Last bus home to Santa Cruz was achieved. A content, full and very pissed for about £9.00, including wine glass, Disco falls asleep on a tiny minibus. My stop is the bus terminus in Santa cruz so no worries about oversleeping. Total cost of the day, including bus fare, around a tenner. Result.

Really enjoyed the vindimea but next time must remember to take a wine glass from the hostel, keep the price down. Disco out.

So, decided to return to Santiago sunday. The Vindemia was on again that day but the sunday buses were not that relaible. Anyways, I think the wine producers and eateries may have cottoned on to my little ruse and may not be so hospitable today. There was a really good Argentinian band playing but thought I would return. I have seen what i wanted to see and experienced what I wanted to.

sat in the garden at Andres home later that afternoon the ground started to shake.I mean really shake.My chair was moving backwards and forwards and all the garden furniture was moving about. The swing seat was rocking to and fro. The windows in the house were creaking. It was an earthquake all right and no mistake.Lasted about ten seconds.

Now for an eathquake to change from a tremour to a quake it must reach a magnitude of 7.0 on the richter scale. A quick check on twitter, to see that it was a 7.2 quake, the epicentre of which was only 55km from the Vindemea in Curico, where I would have been. Twitter users reported no power at all in the Curico area. Luckliy there were no injuries and I guess some minor damage but I made the right choice to return to Santiago.

Monday: my replacement cards have still not arrived to be sent over. Call bank to rant at them, they have only sent them to my old address. #ing useless. My money transfer to an account in chile has still not happened and so still no camera/sunglasses. Trying to stretch the last of my cash. Might need another western union at this rate.

Some good news though. Manged to get some tickets to see the Foo Fighters who are playing in Santiago at a big festival called the loopalooza next sunday.So currently thinking of nipping to the the pisco elqui valley for a few days R&R and then return for the weekend for the Foo´s. Disco out.

no gusta el terremoto.

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