Another satisfying homemade breakfast at the B&B, this time with the addition of scrabbled eggs sprinkled with Merkén: a Mapuche spicy and aromatic seasoning made from dried and smoked Cacho de Cabra (goat's horn) chilli together with salt, cumin, and coriander seeds.
We drove into Vicuña and walked around its centre square, bordered with artesian stalls. At the far corner, stands the strangely shaped clock tower whose red tower almost looks like a rook chess piece. We visited the Museo Gabriela Mistral, a place where we found the replica of the Montegrande school as well as many artefacts linked to Gabriela. First and foremost, Gabriela is renowned for her poetry but she was also an educator, diplomat and feminist. She fought for equality between the vast ridge between the rich and the poor in Chile. She felt it was important to educate everyone with the ability to read and write, not just the privileged. In fact, it wasn't until she received international recognition for her poetry, the Chilean government at the time showed any interest in her. It is said that her distrust of her native country is the cause for her long stint abroad. She eventually settled in the US where she died. Her body was flown back to Chile and was buried in Montegrande.
Further down the street, we visited a former house now museum built by a local influencial merchant in 1875. Our guide at Casa Museo El Solar de los Madariaga was the granddaughter of José Gregorio Madariaga, who had made sure to maintain the family's priceless artefacts. The house showed how the town and the family business had evolved, especially with the introduction of new technologies.
Then it was onto lunch in Villaseca, a small village slightly indented into the side of the barren hill. All around cactus of various types grew, the strong rays of the sun making it difficult for anything else to settle there. Yet because of this, the restaurant we choose to luncheon at cooked all their meals by 100% solar energy. Outside of Restaurante Solar strange orange objects cluttered the front porch, where we could see our meal cooking, wrapped in foil and inside one of these contraptions. There is a set menu of course and the meal was beautifully, organically cooked but lacked a bit of herbs and spices, to give it a kick you know.
From there we continued on our gastronomic adventure down the hill to the famous Capel pisco distillery. Unlike the other distillery we had visited, Capel produces something like 120,000 bottles a day of Capel pisco. It is also produces superior quality pisco under the labels of Los Artesanos de Cochiguaz and Alto del Carmen, as well as a range of premixed pisco drinks. We went on a short tour through the distillery, where grapes are distilled in barrels made from different materials; a good quality wood mixing in its own flavour will produce a richer texture to the pisco whereas a simple steel barrel is used for mass production. You might ask, what is the difference between pisco and brandy? The answer is that pisco is younger and not nearly distilled for as long as a brandy, which can be locked up for years. And a pisco also does not age well; it's better to use up the liquid once the bottle has been opened.
We moved from the distillery vats to the bottling line, an entire spacious room filled with copious amounts of bottles being labelled, filled and packaged, and then it was onto the tasting room. Mis padres took the opportunity to buy the limited edition bicentenary double distilled Capel pisco.
The tasting didn't stop here though as our next stop was the only beer distillery in the entire valley. The Guayacán micro-brewery is now a two-man band who handcraft their beer using their own traditional recipe with Elqui water. The pale ale, stout and pilsner are ever becoming more popular within the valley and beyond. They are hoping to expand within the next few months to cater towards the growing demand for their export.
And all this happened in just one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment