Wine & Food

On weekends in Colchagua, an open fire of grapevine wood often burns, over which a whole lamb slowly roasts on a spit: Cordero al Palo, cooked for several hours until the meat falls off the bone. The smoky aroma carries far. A bold blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère pairs with it better than almost anything else in the glass. Such a blend also works surprisingly well with a simple Bolognese.

Fat needs tannin. That's the simple principle. The heavy fat of the lamb coats the mouth, and tannin cleans it back up: the two meet and both soften in the process, the fat becoming lighter, the tannin rounder. That's exactly why a tannic wine from Apalta or Marchigüe works almost automatically with grilled meat.

More everyday fare includes empanadas de pino, filled with chopped beef, onions, an olive, and a piece of egg, and pastel de choclo, a casserole of sweet mashed corn over ground meat. Both are simply part of daily life. The egg is non-negotiable. Every March, Santa Cruz celebrates the harvest with the Fiesta de la Vendimia. These very dishes appear at every stall, alongside young, easygoing wines from the new vintage.

The valley's rustic cuisine comes from the huasos, the mounted farmhands who have herded cattle and worked the fields here for generations, food meant for a day's work outdoors, not a feast. Show was never the point here. The wine served alongside was traditionally simple: robust enough to hold its own next to meat and fat, without stealing the spotlight itself.