We finally heard from a couple of people in Cauquenes. Everyone is fine, although some lost their homes. This morning, our vineyard contractor drove out to our property to check on Don Ismael, our general caretaker. He and his family are fine, although their house was damaged. As for us, the old adobe building will [...]

I just want to let everyone know that we are all fine here at the Flaherty homestead. We had quite a scare, as the quake went on and on for a full three minutes. That’s long enough to wake up, wait for it to pass (as they usually do), realize that it isn’t passing, get [...]

We’ve had a rather short, but very intense summer. Spring was longer than usual this season, stretching well into December, and things only really heated up with a series of heat waves in January. That changed this week: we woke to an unusually foggy morning that segued into a mild breezy day. As a result [...]

The grapes are starting to turn color in our tempranillo vineyard, a phase called la pinta in Spanish or veraison in French. In English, we sort of bastardize the French term and call it “verasion” (still spelled veraison). In addition to taking on color, the grapes also soften at this point and start producing sugar. [...]

The end of the year is a quiet time in the winery. The 2009 lots all finished malolactic in mid-December—later than usual, but not quite as late as last year. The wines will now age in barrel for another year before bottling, with a move up to Viña San Esteban in March to make room [...]

Ed reports from Rio de Janeiro:
I just spent a week on a promotional tour for Tarapacá Gran Reservas in Brazil. I visited Vitória (the capital of Espírito Santo), Rio de Janeiro, and São Paolo. I understand just enough Portuguese to get myself into trouble, but the Brazilians were very forgiving of my odd gringo Chilean “Portuñol.” [...]

Our first export to England was shipped a little over a week ago. It’s been quite an experience in terms of learning the bureaucratic process involved in exporting wine. Alcohol sales are always more complicated than other products, and when two countries are involved, the process gets even more convoluted. Our customs agent has been [...]