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Published: September 3rd 2014
Medialuna
Community rodeo at Clara Ranch All the beauty of yesterday was severely interrupted at 5:15 this morning by the sudden onslaught of traveller’s diarrhea. Deciding between then and 8:00 breakfast time that it was not caused by an excess of vine-ripened grapes (probably caused by what was on the unwashed grapes), I took Cipro antibiotic. That was immediately effective, and I ate a modest fruit-free breakfast.
Our first event today was a glimpse of
Chilean rodeo on a small ranch. Pablo emphasized that rodeo in Chile is not a big professional competition as in the US, but rather a community activity still strongly based on ranching traditions. We walked a short way to overlook a “medialuna”, the rodeo ground roughly shaped as half a circle. Two huaso (we call them cowboys but never in Chile) entered the medialuna dressed in flat hats, straight short ponchos, leather chaps from ankle to knee, and spurs with a 4” radius circle of dull spikes, and riding sturdy, stocky horses.
They demonstrated their sport of cattle penning: the huaso kept on either side of a steer, drove it around the edge of the medialuna and stopped at a particular spot. This required the inner horse to move sideways, which
Huaso
The classical working man of Chilean ranches it could do at a fast pace. Then the senior huaso demonstrated the agility of his horse by doing a row of figure-eights. Suddenly, as he was showing us the components of his riding gear, I felt quite faint. I left the group to sit in the shade on the veranda of the hacienda, recovering by sipping water, enjoying the rural scene.
">View rodeo demonstration.
, an ultra modern boutique winery. It is one of the most southern in the Central Valley, benefiting from cool breezes from the
offshore, which means the grapes ripen slowly and sweetly. We stood for some considerable time, listening to Solé’s detailed explanations and Pablo’s perforce shorter translations. It transpired that Solé is Mrs von Siebenthal. Eventually Mr van Siebenthal did come out to greet us - we had been warned that the production was it its height and that no one had much time to socialize.
What I have gained from these discourses by the many winemakers on our tour is a little more understanding of the science of wine and a lot more appreciation of the soul and artistry of the creation: why there are
Vina von Siebenthal
Ahhhh! Decadent lunch al fresco so many good wines and why some cost much more than others. Many of the Chilean wines require labour-intensive cultivation, care, harvesting and handling.
When we went into the production plant they were actually packing table grapes, so we got to see exactly how grapes end up in our grocery stores in the plastic un-zipped zip-top bags. All the bags of grapes are individually hand-filled from a conveyor and placed in long, flat boxes that are carried by hand to stacks on pallets.
Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Squawk, indeed
Yikes. A distinctive sound, certainly, if not entirely musical to the unaccustomed ear. It's interesting how different traditional music sounds - from other traditional music, I mean. No one could mistake South American music for music from anywhere else in the world! As the group leader played the pipes, I wondered whether there are different tones achievable with different woods - and whether there are Stradivarius equivalents (or something like that) in those traditional instruments.