Sunday, January 29, 2023
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Business Biz Plus

‘It is kind of complicated’: Growing grapes in the world’s driest desert

AFPbyAFP
May 24, 2022, 6:15 pm
in Biz Plus, Business
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

By Albert Peña

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, Chile—In the middle of Chile’s Atacama desert, the driest in the world, Hector Espindola has an unexpected job: he runs a vineyard.     

Nearly 2,500 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level, his small Bosque Viejo farm produces muscat grapes—and another of a unique “criollo,” or local, variety—in the shadow of quince, pear and fig trees irrigated by a stream fed by melting Andean snow.

Aerial view of the San Juan vineyard, owned by Hector Espindola, in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on May 17, 2022. The Ayllu cooperative produces wine with grapes grown at almost 3,000 meters of altitude, with negative temperatures at night and exorbitant radiation during the day, in the arid soils of the Atacama desert. AFP

Espindola, 71, farms in an oasis in the Toconao region in Chile’s extreme north—some 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from the vineyards at the center of the world’s longest country that have made it one of the world’s top 10 wine exporters.   

But growing grapes in the desert is no easy task.   

ADVERTISEMENT

Espindola contends with extreme day-night temperature fluctuations and extreme solar radiation on top of wind and frost.   

“You have to be dedicated. I water here at night… at three in the morning, eleven at night,” he told AFP while caressing his vines, dry and brown two months after the harvest.   

“You have to be careful because here the heat, the climate is no joke,” he said.

“Sometimes it is windy and production is lost, sometimes the frost comes early. It is kind of complicated.”   

For her sons

Espindola sends his crop to the Ayllu cooperative which since 2017 has received grapes from 18 small vineyards around Toconao.

In 2021, the cooperative received 16 tons of grapes for a yield of 12,000 bottles.     

The harvest was better in 2022 with more than 20 tons of grapes—enough for 15,000 bottles but still just a drop, at about one percent, of Chile’s annual production.   

Most contributors to the cooperative are members of indigenous communities who were previously individual, small-scale producers.

One of them, 67-year-old Cecilia Cruz, grows syrah and pinot noir grapes at an altitude of about 3,600 meters outside the village of Socaire—Chile’s highest vineyard.  

“I feel special… to have this vineyard here and to produce wine at this altitude,” she said amid the vines that still sport a few bunches of wrinkled, dried grapes. AFP

But she has a bigger goal: “a future” for her three sons.   

‘Taste the Atacama’

For Ayllu oenologist Fabian Munoz, 24, the mission is to create a unique wine that captures the characteristics of the volcanic rock in which the grapes grow. 

“When the consumer tastes an Ayllu wine (they should) think: ‘Wow! I’m tasting the Atacama desert’,” he said. 

Carolina Vicencio, an expert in wine chemistry, said the altitude, low atmospheric pressure and extreme temperature fluctuations make for a thicker-skinned grape.

“This generates more tannin molecules in the skin of the grape which gives a certain bitterness in the wine,” she said.

“There is also higher salinity of the soil… which makes for a touch of mineralization in the mouth” that makes the Atacama desert wine one of a kind.

Tags: Chilemuscat grapesvineyard
ADVERTISEMENT
AFP

AFP

Related Posts

Handicraft exporter creates unique products

byManila Standard
January 28, 2023, 6:40 pm
0
8
Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

Having her own export business is a dream project for Joam Basalo. It took her a decade and a half...

Read more

Business reality show host talks of business pitches in a new book

byManila Standard
January 28, 2023, 6:30 pm
0
8
Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

Learn the tips and hacks for making compelling business pitches and winning big-ticket investors as John Aguilar, serial entrepreneur and...

Read more

Filipinos spent 75,305 hours in using financial apps last year

byManila Standard
January 28, 2023, 6:20 pm
0
8
Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

Over 2 million active users in the Philippines have spent a total of 75,305 hours, or an equivalent of 9...

Read more

SEARCA supports digitizing access to agricultural supply

byManila Standard
January 28, 2023, 6:10 pm
0
8
Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

To provide farmers better access to supplies for agricultural production, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research...

Read more

Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

byManila Standard
January 28, 2023, 6:00 pm
0
8
Crosta Pizzeria co-owner shares her brand of leadership

To hold nothing back is to be empowered to take on challenges that will surface as you follow your ultimate...

Read more

BSP ready to further tweak policy to contain inflation

byJulito G. Rada
January 27, 2023, 9:20 pm
0
8
Remittances increased 5.3% to $25.929b in first 10 months

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reaffirmed its readiness to tweak its monetary policy stance to rein in inflation in the...

Read more

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Army Navy supports Club200 Endurance Race
  • Sneakers for Makati : AB4.0
  • DOJ: We won’t yield to ICC
  • PBBM raises 7 priority bills in talk with Congress leaders
  • US Defense chief sets PH trip next week
  • Gov’t eyes link of BI officials to jailed Japanese mob boss
  • Angel wings
  • Low pay keeps guidance counselors from school

Advertisement

Latest News

Gov’t eyes link of BI officials to jailed Japanese mob boss

byManila Standard
January 29, 2023, 1:00 am
0
8
Koreans top list of fugitive aliens captured by BI

The Department of Justice will investigate Immigration officials who may have been in cahoots with a Japanese national in running...

Read more

Angel wings

byManny Palmero
January 29, 2023, 12:53 am
0
8
Bad weather hampers search for Cessna plane

Visitors have fun having souvenir photos taken with huge angel wings at the backdrop at Tambaan Farm in Hilongos Leyte.

Read more

Low pay keeps guidance counselors from school

byManila Standard
January 29, 2023, 12:50 am
0
8
Sexual offense victims urged to sue 7 teachers

The Department of Education on Saturday admitted there is a scarcity of guidance counselors to attend to the psychosocial needs...

Read more

Biker’s haven

byDanny Pata
January 29, 2023, 12:48 am
0
8
Bad weather hampers search for Cessna plane

Bikers can take their routine round and at the same time enjoy the scenic view at the Lakeshore in Taguig...

Read more

Onions at low P170/kilo as imports boost supply

byManila Standard
January 29, 2023, 12:40 am
0
8
Airport mess trigger: Faulty circuit breaker

The prevailing retail prices of onions have dropped to as low as P170 per kilo for the loc white variety...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App