South America (Day 4)

February 18

December 23

Wine…the intellectual part of the meal… ~ Alexandre Dumas

OK, it’s time to get on board the ship. After all, it is a cruise. So, for the next two posts I’ll include the full “Viking Daily” so you get the idea of what’s happening on a daily basis – plus it’s an introduction to the four lecturers we enjoyed through the entire cruise . . . ~ Me

For a chase, the Cardinal recommends his excellent ’24 Cabernet. ~ Porthos in “The Three Musketeers”

With wine in hand, one reaches the happy state, where men are wise, women beautiful, and even one’s children begin to look promising. ~ Unknown

[Our last meal (breakfast) at the Santiago Marriott . . . ]

Clearly, the pleasures wines afford are transitory – but so are those of the ballet, or of a musical performance. Wine is inspiring and adds greatly to the joy of living. ~ Napoleon, 1769–1821

[On the hour and a half (70 miles) bus ride from Santiago to Valparaiso where we will board our boat, Viking Jupiter . . . ]

[b]efore the Berlin Tasting in 2004, Chile’s wines had no recognition. ~ Eduardo Chadwick

[The Santiago version of the “Hollywood” sign . . . ]

Wine is sunlight, held together by water. ~ Galileo Galilei

When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing. ~ Ovid, The Art of Love, c. A.D. 8

[As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, “We’ll be back” . . . ]

Water is bad for you and wine makes you sing. ~ Italian proverb

[Church on entry into Valparaiso . . . ]

Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[On the bus, arriving in Valparaiso wending our way to the port for our boat . . . ]

There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking. ~ Benjamin Franklin

[We’re here . . . ]

My dear girl, there are some things that are just not done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38° Fahrenheit. ~ James Bond

[Check in, security checks, et al . . . ]

What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch? ~ W.C. Fields

[On our boat balcony looking out over Valparaiso . . . ]

I never drink… wine. ~ Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi)

[Our home for the next three weeks . . . ]

I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it, in defeat I need it. ~ Winston Churchill

[Assume the default position . . . ]

Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together. ~ Elizabeth Taylor

[When you empty your backpack after several trips . . . ]

[The Solidarity Monument is a Chilean sculptural monument made with a copper coating located on the side of the building of the National Congress of Chile , in the central lane of Avenida Argentina in the commune of Valparaiso. It was designed by the Chilean sculptor Nario Irarrazabal. (Wikipedia)]

Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you. ~ William Shakespeare

The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind. ~ Humphrey Bogart

[Valparaiso street scene as we bus to an evening at a Casablanca Valley Winery . . . ]

There comes a time in every woman’s life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne. ~ Bette Davis

Wine is the most civilized thing in the world. ~ Ernest Hemingway

[This reminded me of the dire need for building codes . . . ]

Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy. ~ Alexander Fleming

Chile is making a shift up from the lower echelons of the pricing spectrum into more premium territory…now it’s clear producers are focusing on imbuing the wines with elegance, restraint and great capacity to age. This is very promising news. ~ Peter Richards

The quality-price ratio is hard to ignore: highly rated Chilean bottles that cost $15 to $30 a bottle in the United States can easily compete with European or Californian counterparts that would cost three to four times as much. ~ John Suckling

[We have arrived for an afternoon at a Casablanca Valley Winery . . . ]

[These wines] offer a completely different face of Chile, a style of wines that give the country a way into the conversation… and joins the eternal search for wines of authenticity. ~ Patricia Tapia

During the 17 years I have covered Chilean wine for Wine Enthusiast, never have more boutique wines made their debut than right now. Now more than ever, the little guy in Chile is making waves. ~ Michael Schachner

This is not the industrial and boring Chile you might have had in mind. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. ~ Luis Gutierrez

[And who knew it came with entertainment?]

It’s a little depressing that sommeliers who seek out wines from the most obscure regions of France, Italy, Spain and California apparently can’t seem to find even a single Chilean bottling that meets their standards. Are [sommeliers] even bothering to look at this vinously diverse country’s wines at all? I wonder because today there are many excellent wines available from Chile, as well as countless outstanding values. ~ Josh Reynolds

[The Super was looking for either a chair or a dance partner . . . ]

Every time I’m in Chile I’m impressed by the breadth of great wines being produced, though many of them tend to never leave the country. ~ Nicholas Gill

Wine in Chile, as is the case across the American continent, was brought by Spanish colonisers and spread across the territory thanks to the insistence on converting people to Catholicism. ~ Ricardo Grellet

Moving beyond workhorse bottles, you’ll find a country full of distinct regions and a broad range of grapes. Explore Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and find out whether or not Cabernet Sauvignon is Chile’s best red grape. ~ Michael Schachner

I’m coming across Chilean wines that have that hard-to-define little extra that makes a wine worth shelling out a few quid more for: that bit of extra verve, complexity, character, or concentration to make them stand out from their cheaper peers. ~ David Williams

Chile is a unique country with a profound history and culture of winemaking. The country is situated in one of the world’s most diverse and dynamic New World wine regions. The historic wine roots go deep in time. The Maipo Valley is arguably Chile’s most historic and famous wine region. ~ thisdayinwinehistory

It is straightforward to fall in love with Chile – the landscape, its gregarious people, and the excellent wines. ~ James Lawrence

Ask anyone who knows my wine-loving-side what my favorite wine country in the world is … I have always responded … “CHILE!” ~ Veronique Cecilia Barretto

Chilean wine tourism severely trails that of places like France or Napa Valley. Most wine producers are just not set up to accept winery visits. ~ Felipe Tosso

[Wine tasting with palate cleaners . . . ]

Chilean wines have sparked tremendous interest throughout the world and their success is now explained by this account of the origins and development of an industry with a rich 450 years winemaking tradition. ~ Rodrigo Alvarado

[If I read the bottle label correctly, this was a quite tasty Casas Del Bosque Sauvignon Blanc . . . ]

The Casablanca Valley is relatively new to the wine industry with wine production beginning as late as the mid-1980s. Situated on the coastal plain between Santiago and Valparaiso, it is Chile’s fastest growing wine region. ~ knowmadadventures

In Chile, the large temperature differences between day and night, the relatively high degree of humidity of the ocean and the many hours of sunshine provide the perfect conditions for good wine-growing opportunities. ~ Grandcruwijnen.nl

Chile’s vintners are increasingly thinking about how to adapt to shifts in climate and drier weather that has seen the Andean country gripped by drought for over a decade. ~ Reuters

Of all the wine regions, in all the countries, in all the world…one of the ones I was most excited about visiting recently was Chile’s Casablanca Valley. ~ clustercrush

Located just about an hour’s drive east of Santiago, between the capital and the coastal city of Valparaiso, the Casablanca Valley is a relatively new wine region that was first planted in the mid-80s. ~ clustercrush