Chile celebrates its independence day on September 18th and 19th—dieciocho de septiembre. The holiday fell midweek this year, which made for a nice long weekend, so we headed north for a little camping and some vineyard scouting. We took the interior route north from San Felipe to Illapel. The road goes through a series of beautiful old train tunnels and winds its way through a striking section of Chile’s Little North. We spent the weekend at the Chincillas National Reserve, which is one of the last places in Chile that has a natural chinchilla population.

Flahertys in Reserva las Chinchillas

We continued on to the Agua y Tierra vineyard south of Ovalle. The organic vineyard is the project of gringo Jim Pryor. We’re talking about making wine with the owner Jim—800 kilos each of Syrah, Cabernet, and Carmenère, which we would eventually release as a separate blend. It will be interesting to see how the fruit compares to our Aconcagua blend.