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Las Doscientas: 200% Olive Oil
In Chile there has been a major increase in good quality, low-acid extra virgin olive oil production in the past couple years, although still only a fraction of it is being exported. That picture is rapidly changing and soon, I imagine that many Chilean oils will end...
Some Argentinean Elegance-and Inspiration
I am sitting here about to kick the rest of what is in my decanter: a 2002 Clos des Andes I recently brought back from another trip to Mendoza, Argentina. I must confess: I am utterly smitten with Argentina and many of its wines. They are totally different than...
Debunking the Chilean Seabass Myth
As of late when dining out in restaurants in and around Chile, I have come to notice (and am alarmed) that most menus do a horrendous translation job when it comes to accurately defining what Chilean Seabass is in English. For those readers traveling in Chile, please...
Vendimia: Grape Harvest, That Time of Year (VIAJES Magazine, La Tercera Newspaper, 26-02-2006)
This text was written this text for the Sunday Travel section of the La Tercera newspaper on February 26, 2006 (translated here from Spanish) as part of a large calendar of wine-related parties and activities in the many valleys surrounding Santiago. Harvest is...
Chile’s Wine Darlings: The 2006 Awards
The final word is out. The oldest and most comprehensive guide on Chilean Wines, known to those of us who live here as La Guía de Vinos de Chile (Chilean Wine Guide), has launched its 2006 version and here are the results. For this version, more than 1,000+...
Chile’s New Wine Superstars
Michael Schachner of Wine Enthusiast in his article "Chile's Fresh Faces" (November 1, 2005 issue), recently profiled Chile’s newcomers, many boutique-style vineyards, who are favoring quality-driven wines and whose first vintages were all in this millennium. The “fab...
The Art (or not so art) of the Chilean Asado
Another weekend, another asado. Such is life in Chile in the summer. Asados, otherwise know in English as barbeques, are much more than grilled meat and outdoor eating here; they are a full on event and social ritual. We were invited over to our friends’ new...
Abs Diet 101
Here’s the deal on the Abs Diet. You eat a lot, every 3 hours. You never should be hungry. There is no portion control—you oversee that. Eat until you are satisfied. Since the foods are high-protein, high-fiber you will fill up quickly and not get hungry for hours...
Just Say No
It is 10:30 p.m. and only two of my 13 guests have arrived. The invitation stated 9:30 p.m. very clearly as the time that the party would start. Everyone invited RSVP-ed that they were coming. “So why are they all so late?”, I grumble to my boyfriend and two other...
New Age Wines?
Alan York, Biodynamics master-extraordinaire looks in his mid-50s. He has thick, shiny, silver hair cut stylishly, framing his tanned and weathered face with tiny, piercing eyes. His voice sounds youthful with speech that is paused and thoughtful. There is something...
Stratégie du Supermarché
I will admit that I am somewhat “under-studied” in French wines. The problem is, for as much as great wine as Chile produces, that is all we get here. Hence, a wine knowledge deficit is inevitably created. To combat this void, I decided to go to France for Vinexpo in...
My So-Called Career: How did I end up here?
“En cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno, vamos con Liz!”. The lights flash on and the cameras swivel around to lock their focus on me in the studio kitchen. Here we go. We are broadcasting live; cooking for all of Chile for the next five to ten minutes. In those brief...
Chilean Liquid Gold
Today the 3rd annual Chilean Olive Oil "Summit" was held by Chileoliva, the Association of Chilean Olive Oil Producers. Most people (including many Chileans) don't realize it, but olive oil in Chile is quickly becoming the next hottest gastronomic commodity,...
The “Body” of Wine
The other night at a wine dinner, engrossed in intense conversation among people in the food and wine industry in Chile, the most memorable part of the evening was perhaps the description of wine by the winemaker of Amayna (Viña Garcés Silva), Claudia Gomez. She...
Vinexpo 2005: The Wine Olympics, (VITIVINICULTURA Magazine: July, 2005)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall whose stand looks best of all?”. Certainly this could have been the familiar nursery rhyme that many of the 2,400 exhibitors were silently singing to themselves at the recent Vinexpo 2005, the 13th, held from June 19-23 in Bordeaux,...
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