Dorothea, Maca and I have had a most exciting week in Curico with our excellent partners at Los Robles. Marta has shown us how chemical analysis ensures quality control; Paula has shared her expertise in mixing grapes to produce the best from the harvest; Diana has described the social programme of the collective; Felipe, Fidel and Pablo have introduced the documentation processes that see conversion from kilos of grapes to litres of wine; Francisco and Sergio have explained the value of FairTrade – and we happened to meet Leo of FLO conducting one of his regular assessment visits, so we had an interesting chat with him too. We ran a workshop on how all the different information that contributes to wine production might be made available and intelligible to ethical consumers, held a drinks event for anyone interested in contributing their stories and images from daily life, sampled collective life with an evening of ‘asado’ and vino Los Robles (see picture below), and made two visits to meet producers in their vineyards. (And that was all before breakfast!)
Our hosts are really friendly and my Spanish skills are increasing exponentially (from a very small base). I can’t believe that it’s all over for this visit in just three days…
Dorothea and Maca say hi!