We were out at Cauquenes on the weekend of the 8th. Don Ismael has done the initial clearing of the vineyard site and fenced off the old adobe building that we use for storage (and our base camp when we visit). Things are really moving along.

We met a new surveyor while we were there and contracted him to do a property plan and coordinate some of the work, like getting a back hoe out to pull out the bigger stumps. His official survey placed the property at 14.4 hectares, instead of the 13.3 estimated by the last surveyor. So who’s right? The new surveyor was more thorough (he pulled out some bushes and cut…

We just spent our first weekend at the Cauquenes property as owners. We drove down on Friday, camped for two nights, and drove back on Sunday. It was a lot of driving, but a great weekend nonetheless. Don Ismael is our caretaker. He runs his six horses on the property, which has a huge effect in terms of keeping the weeds down. Abandoned properties nearby are nearly impassable with waist-high weeds. The ground is still pretty wet from the winter and spring rains, although the creek is already dry. There are a lot of wild flowers, including wild roses (called rosa mosqueta in Chile) and pennyroyal (poleo).
The first step in planting the vineyard is clearing a section of the land. We decided where we want to start, and Don Ismael will start clearing the area this month.

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And it was pretty touch and go. We met the three Quesada sisters at a notary in Santiago to sign the papers prepared by the bank. One of the sisters did not want to sign because she disagreed with the terms of payment. Not the price, just the terms. We went ahead and signed (we’re leaving for the US next week, so if we didn’t sign yesterday, we weren’t signing) and left it up to them. The notary called this afternoon to let us know that the sisters finally signed this morning. Now the bank has to do their thing, and we should be the proud owners of a new vineyard site when we get back from our trip.

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It’s official: We’re buying vineyard land in Cauquenes! Ed made an offer on one of the properties he’s been viewing, and the offer was accepted. The offer was based on a price per hectare, so we had a surveyor come out to measure the land. The property had been estimated at around ten hectares, but the surveyor set it at 13.3 (that’s 32.5 acres). It’s not all suitable for planting. A seasonal creek runs through the bottom part, and it gets pretty boggy down there in the winter and spring. There’s also a grove of old-growth espinos (thorn trees—the local mesquite), which is home to a pair of burrowing owls. We’ll probably be able to plant about half the property—probably tempranillo, syrah, maybe malbec—and there’s a hectare or so of hundred-year-old vines of pais (mission), which we’ll graft over to carignan.
While Ed was there, he spoke to one of the owners of another property nearby. Someone has made an offer, but if the sale falls through we’ll match that offer. Fingers crossed—it’s a beautiful piece of land which is mostly on a hillside. Not very practical for planting, but it would be wonderful to include as part of our project.