http://www.flahertywines.com/chile Boutique wines from Chile Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:30:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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, ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/good-news-from-cauquenes/ 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 ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/earthquake-update/ 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 ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/chilly-in-chile-this-week/ Santa was very generous with the candy canes this year, so we had plenty to savour and plenty to stash. My latest peppermint experiment was sugar cookies, which came out wonderfully crispy and flavorful. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I used my heart cookie cutters. The heart-shaped ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/peppermint-sugar-cookies/ Last night was a grill night—a big punta de ganso steak (outside round), potatoes, zucchini, red onions, and peppers. This cut of meat has so much flavor that we didn't marinated it, but at the last minute Ed suggested adding some sort of flavorful sauce. What to throw together on ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/marjoram-horseradish-sauce/ I was looking for a creamy white chocolate frosting that really tasted of white chocolate, rather than being dominated by the butter. I generally prefer a cream cheese frosting, so I started there and experimented with how to work with the chocolate. I had much better results using a higher ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/white-chocolate-frosting/ We were down in Cauquenes for New Year's Eve, camping out in our remote little corner of the planet. We've made a lot of progress on the vineyard, with new water tanks and a piping system that enables us to water the new plants. We had an unusually wet spring, ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/progress-on-the-new-planting/ 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 ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/la-pinta/ 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 ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/year-end-update/ December is a really busy month around here. The kids start their summer vacation around the 10th, Ben's birthday is the 14th, and of course there are Christmas preparations to arrange. I also have a lot of translating work this time of year, so I don't get to spend a ... http://www.flahertywines.com/chile/my-favorite-tri-tip-marinade/