Viña Indómita

May 10, 2013

Today, we started by going to a vineyard.  This was our second company visit, to Viña Indómita, but it was still a bit odd that we started the day with wine.  The vineyard was built in a valley, which resulted in an incredible view from the front door. 

 We learned a lot about wine, today, including the processes to make red and white wines, which are very different.  White wine is made by crushing the grapes in a way that does not harm the skins too much, and straining out the juice.  The juice is then fermented for only about ten days.  Red wine, however, is made by putting all of the grapes into one huge vat, in a way that they crush each other.  That juice is then fermented in the presence of the skins.  The grapes then get crushed again, and the process repeats.  The first crush makes the best quality wine.  Then, the wines get aged in either oak barrels,

 or steel vats.

 The better wines get aged in the oak to add complexity to the flavor, while the lower quality wines are aged in the steel because the oak adds flavor that would overpower their less complex flavors.

Another interesting thing about the vineyard was that there are roses planted everywhere.

 These roses are useful because they are fragile plants.  This means that, if a plague were to hit the vineyard, the roses would die first, giving the people at the vineyard time to prepare.  They also attract aphids, which are a kind of harmful bugs, to themselves, drawing them away from the grape vines, while also attracting ladybugs to the vineyard to eat the aphids.

Lastly at the vineyard, we tasted some of the wine.  I have never been a big fan of wine, but I could appreciate that it was very good quality.

After the tour, we visited the house of the famous poet and known eccentric, Pablo Neruda.  His three houses have been turned into museums for people to tour.  His house was full of odd collections and statues taken from the front of boats.  What I found most amazing was that every room had an incredible view of the sea.  I understand completely how he got inspired to create art, living in a place like this.

 This was a picture I took of the outside of the house while we were lounging on the beach after our tour.  The beach itself was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. 

I wish I could live in a place where this is my backyard.

After the museum, we went to our last dance class. This one combined salsa with more modern music, to create a more contemporary style.  He last segment of the class was about dances that have set steps, a lot like some dances we have, like the Cha Cha Slide, or the Cupid Shuffle.  One of the dances, much to our amusement, had the exact same steps as the Electric Slide.  I assume the Cuban version came first, but it was really funny to me that the instructor was so impressed that we learned so quickly, because none of us knew how to tell him that it was a dance we had in the US.  After class, we returned to the hotel, and I realized that I had managed to get the Electric Slide stuck in my head.

It’s Electric, boogie woogie, woogie!