South America in pictures

The trip, which was hosted by Santa Rita Estates, began with a stay here at Casa Real in Buin, just south of Santiago. Fans of Chilean fine wine may recognise this chapel, which was built by the owner in the 19^th century for his daughter’s wedding and features on the label of the producer’s most prestigious wine, Casa Real.

In keeping with its organic approach, Nativa seemed more like a farm than a wine producer with flocks of ducks, geese and these llamas all adding to the biodiversity.

As Santa Rita officially launched its top end Petite Sirah called Bougainville, technical director Andres Ilabaca offered an in-depth tour of the vineyard in Alto Jahuel, Maipo. Unusually, the variety has been grafted onto a pergola training system more normally associated with table grapes, but which performed best in trials.

Sebastian Warnier, Santa Rita Estates’ head of viticulture for Chile, took db on a tour of the company’s nursery, which is home to around 5,000 plants. Set up eight years ago, during which time the company has invested US$400,000 in its work, the nursery allows Santa Rita to clean and propagate its own plant material.

After basking in the 30°C springtime heat around Santiago, db experienced compelling proof of Chile’s climatic diversity just a few hours further south in Pumanque, a sub-region of coastal Colchagua. Santa Rita is playing a leading role in developing this region, having bought a 1,200 hectare estate here in 2004, of which half has now been planted.

Having shivered through more cool climate conditions in Leyda, another exciting Chilean region to emerge within the last decade, there was time to squeeze in a quick visit to the colourful city of Valparaiso, where brightly painted houses intermingle with creative street art.

Then it was off across the Andes to Mendoza’s Uco Valley, where Doña Paula is beginning to reap the results from its Alluvia estate 1,300m up in Gualtallary. Agronomist Martin Kaiser showed off these Malbec bush vines, but despite the harsh desert conditions, the producer has also managed to cultivate Riesling here, which is due for release in the next few months.

Even in the middle of nowhere, the Argentinians manage to rustle up a spectacular asado, including just one of many kilos of beef consumed on the trip.

Further to the south of the Uco Valley in its Los Indios estate, Doña Paula has found large quantities of this unusual dark, calcium-rich rock, which Kaiser believes could hold valuable water reserves and nutrients for the vines in this arid region.

And finally…the Andes offered a spectacular South American send off as the plane left Santiago at sunset.