Monday 30th January 2017
Well, the title might be a slight exaggeration, (best value?) after finding a 2 litre box of white wine for less than £2, we weren't expecting much for the price, but it was remarkably drinkable and every bit as good as a £6 bottle of supermarket wine at home, making it about ⅛ of the price we're used to.
While white wine is very nice, especially when properly chilled, a good red is much nicer for evening drinking, IMHO. So an expedition to find a good red found us in a rather seedy looking off-licence. I gestured to the nice lady that I'd like to look at two particular bottles of red, with a view to choosing one or the other.
The Cabernet Sauvignon looked good, and I was fairly sure that would like it, but the other was a Carménère, a grape variety I'd never heard of until Eddy told us about it.
This grape had long been popular in Chile, but was assumed to be a variant of Merlot. But with recent advances in genetics, it had been discovered that it was actually a long lost European grape that was wiped out in Europe (in 1867) by disease (phylloxera). Nobody knew for many years that someone had brought samples to South America in about 1850 where it flourished under the misapprehension that it was a Merlot variety, and in the Chilean climate, was largely immune to the phylloxera insect.
So, I just had to try it. But in case it wasn't to my taste, the other bottle seemed like a good insurance policy. I had a bit of a shock though when I asked the price ...........
£5 (approximately) for the two 2 litre bottles!!!!!
I/we couldn't get them home fast enough (back to Sara's Uncle's holiday cabin) to try.
First though, we toured the bright lights of Pichilemu ......
So bright that Barbara was still wearing her sunglasses! The funfair was in full swing, but we left that to the youngsters.
And stopping for some Churros - linear doughnuts, to add to the chips we'd bought earlier at the Empanadas outlet. Healthy eating!!!
Stray dogs are a very common sight everywhere in Chile it seems. We saw some very near misses with cars ....
Sober now. I can confirm that Carménère is really nice. I wonder how many 2 litre bottles our weight limit will allow on the flights home?
P.S. have subsequently seen Carménère in Tesco's, but rather more expensive.
Well, the title might be a slight exaggeration, (best value?) after finding a 2 litre box of white wine for less than £2, we weren't expecting much for the price, but it was remarkably drinkable and every bit as good as a £6 bottle of supermarket wine at home, making it about ⅛ of the price we're used to.
While white wine is very nice, especially when properly chilled, a good red is much nicer for evening drinking, IMHO. So an expedition to find a good red found us in a rather seedy looking off-licence. I gestured to the nice lady that I'd like to look at two particular bottles of red, with a view to choosing one or the other.
The Cabernet Sauvignon looked good, and I was fairly sure that would like it, but the other was a Carménère, a grape variety I'd never heard of until Eddy told us about it.
This grape had long been popular in Chile, but was assumed to be a variant of Merlot. But with recent advances in genetics, it had been discovered that it was actually a long lost European grape that was wiped out in Europe (in 1867) by disease (phylloxera). Nobody knew for many years that someone had brought samples to South America in about 1850 where it flourished under the misapprehension that it was a Merlot variety, and in the Chilean climate, was largely immune to the phylloxera insect.
So, I just had to try it. But in case it wasn't to my taste, the other bottle seemed like a good insurance policy. I had a bit of a shock though when I asked the price ...........
£5 (approximately) for the two 2 litre bottles!!!!!
I/we couldn't get them home fast enough (back to Sara's Uncle's holiday cabin) to try.
First though, we toured the bright lights of Pichilemu ......
So bright that Barbara was still wearing her sunglasses! The funfair was in full swing, but we left that to the youngsters.
And stopping for some Churros - linear doughnuts, to add to the chips we'd bought earlier at the Empanadas outlet. Healthy eating!!!
Stray dogs are a very common sight everywhere in Chile it seems. We saw some very near misses with cars ....
Sober now. I can confirm that Carménère is really nice. I wonder how many 2 litre bottles our weight limit will allow on the flights home?
P.S. have subsequently seen Carménère in Tesco's, but rather more expensive.
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