The weather at Santa Rita Winery on Feb. 26 was warm and breezeless. It was an ideal setting for a tasting on the patio at the winery's hotel, an hour south of Santiago, Chile. While sipping 2008 Medalla Real Carmenere with winemaker-marketing director Maria Cecila Pino, I learned that Carmenere was rediscovered at the Claro Wine Group's sister winery, coincidentally named Carmen.
There is a small admission charge to the exhibition which is being held in aid of the Lit & Phil. And while items such as the Queen Mumorial tea-towel and the model of Viz's fictional home town, Fulchester, are not for sale, you can buy a special bag with both the Viz and Lit & Phil logos on it.My wife and I aren't professionals. We just know what we like. When we run into a problem, we face it, break it down, and decide what looks best. With good information and a little bit of time to spend, you can make your living room "the" room that everyone talks about when they come to visit.No flow of electricity or waterJust so happens that in one of our previous homes, the walls were about the same color. It was time to sell and there was this empty space above the mantle. What would be just right there? Wrought iron? Something black and white? Some professional wall art?Wineries that dry farm, such as O. Foamier and Gillmore in Maule, were immune to irrigation problems. But in the San Antonio region, marketing director Claudia Gomez and the Amayna winery team had reviewed the need for generators the week before the quake and chosen not to buy."There is no reason why we shouldn't have this exhibition here," said Chris.But maybe that should read until today. For last night Viz co-founder Chris Donald officially opened the 30th anniversary exhibition of his mischievous mag in the Lit & Phil's ground floor gallery.Meanwhile Viz co-founder Simon Donald sent up a famous John Everett Millais painting called Bubbles, used to advertise Pears' Soap in Victorian times, with a vulgar version showing Johnny Fartpants.Nearly everyone in a long swath of Chile's wine regions--from Casablanca, Colchagua and Maule to Bio-Bio--felt the impact of the quake personally or professionally. From the tasting room to the cellar and barrel storage, wineries hurried to assess business losses. Though the cleanup took only days, projects to rebuild infrastructure, equipment, storage and their communities will take much longer."We had the space and, frankly, this part of the place is under-used."I hope what you've gotten out of this article is that style is not confined to a single term; like contemporary, traditional or country. Style is your state of mind and what appeals to you.Maybe you live by the water and nautical fits your style. In that case, blues, whites, greens and yellows may work for you. If you live in a downtown loft, you may want an industrial look with white and silver elements. If you're in search of the perfect country look - try some softer, blues, reds, browns, and maybe some yellows.At Estampa Vineyards in Colchagua, the 9-year-old outer winery building suffered minimal damage due to walls and roof construction made of polyurethane covered with metal siding: lightweight, flexible and very resistant. But an inner concrete structure that housed the tasting room and wine bar collapsed. "The twolevel structure just fell down," said head winemaker Ricardo Baetting.When electrical lines went down, the power surge at Casas del Bosque blew the transformer and failsafe mechanism to trigger the generator. Without surge protection, however, Phelps found that circuitry in the higher voltage equipment used in computer controls was damaged. Since then, he has experienced intermittent problems with the circuitry that runs the presses.Cartoonist Davey Jones's cartoon image of Gilbert Ratchet Vitruvian Handyman is a spoof of a famous scientific drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.Also without water for six days, Baetting picked Sauvignon Blanc at higher Brix levels than normal, but Estampa's water reservoirs suffered no damage. Other wineries experienced failure of reservoir walls and broken piping from canal systems.Six days later in Santiago, I caught up with international vintner Jose Manuel Ortega. Owner of O. Fournier wineries in Spain and Argentina, Ortega was making his second long trip over damaged roads from his Mendoza home to his leased production facilities in Chile's Maule Valley. He was eager to talk with me about recovery efforts and to deliver glass lab equipment to restock his smashed cellar.LightingOverall impactPhil Wente of Wente Vineyards in Livermore Valley, Calif., got a voicemail from Veramonte soon after the quake. What information could the fourth-generation winegrower share about anti-seismic stainless tank design?Chris pointed out that the creators of some of Viz's many rude and funny characters are actually quite a brainy bunch.I had obviously not read the guidebook, which footnoted Chile's potential for earthquakes, but I knew instantly that idyllic dinners sipping Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon were to be displaced by the reality of the terremoto in South Central Chile, home to the country's burgeoning wine regions.A few hours later, at 3:34 a.m., I learned that 90 seconds is an eternity. The earthquake roared in at 8.8 on the Richter scale and wouldn't stop. I awoke to the sound of two trains ramming the room as lamps and paintings fell. One train bounced beneath me as the earth shook sideways and vertically. Another thundered overhead as plaster, furniture and fixtures fell on the floor above.The quantity of lost wine varied greatly by proximity to the epicenter, type of equipment and building construction. Structural problems at Veramonte, opened in 1995 in the Casablanca region, occurred only on a balcony used as a vista point. About 240,000 liters--6% of wine inventory--was lost.When we moved into our house, the walls were off-white. Not bad, definitely versatile, but not for us, and definitely not for our furniture and accents. We used our favorite wall color, Sherwin Williams Latte , and...WOW!!!! The room just popped! When your paint colors complement your furniture and accents, and your furniture and accents complement your paint colors...you win. Your style starts working for you.George Stephenson demonstrated his miners' safety lamp there in 1815 and electric lightbulb inventor Sir Joseph Swan lectured there in 1880.
Several Veramonte stainless steel tanks were damaged. Owner of the company and Agustin's son, Agustin Francisco Huneeus succinctly summed up the damage: "The bolts at the base failed, and the legs of the tank buckled over."
Author: Deborah Grossman
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