Riding Chile's wine train to the Colchagua Valley

Pairing a turbulent past with hearty reds  

  

By David G. Molyneaux, editor, TheTravelMavens

Travel to Chile offers adventure into the Andes Mountains, Patagonia, Easter Island and nearby Antarctica. But for those of us who would prefer to sit and sip, Chile is about wine, particularly its hearty reds. 

Chile's wine-producing valleys are developing their own vineyard tours -- like those offered in California but without hints of eliteness or pretension. 

Most wines in Chile, including some good vintages, are in the $5 to $15 range. 

Chile is a safe travel destination, some 16 years after the end of the dictatorship of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet. He was blamed for thousands of political killings and torture. These days, though, most folks in Chile would prefer to talk about their cosmopolitan capital of Santiago, their growing exports and Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first woman president. 

Battles and bullies long have played major roles in this part of the world, and if you scratch the surface of respectability, you might find a fugitive wanted in the United States for selling bombs to Iraq. More about him later.

Aboard the Wine Train

The Wine Train offers weekly trips through Chile's Colchagua Valley

         

An enjoyable way to get from Santiago to the rich vineyards of Colchagua Valley is aboard the antique rail cars of the Wine Train, known as the Tren del Vino. www.trendelvino.com.

The all-day tour for $97 starts with a two-hour bus ride south from Santiago, then about two hours on a train with local wines to taste on board, followed by a tasting at a local winery, lunch in the somewhat dusty town of Santa Cruz (with more wine) and a visit to a museum of Chile's turbulent history. 

The bus back to Santiago is a peaceful snooze. 

A restored 1913 steam engine pulls the Tren del Vino. Since June 2004, it had missed only one day of its weekly Saturday runs into the valley. Alas, on a special Sunday excursion for a group of Americans last fall, the engine was steamless most of the day -- we were on board for less than 30 minutes -- so most of our valley visit was not on a wine train, but a wine bus. 

Still, the journey from Santiago into Colchagua Valley was delightful. The long, narrow valley, with mountains on both sides, follows the course of the Tinguiririca River, which flows from glacial peaks in the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. Windflowers were in full bloom in October, which is spring in the Southern Hemisphere. 

Our bus took us to the Bisquertt family winery, which dates back at least 100 years. Many of the wineries of Colchagua Valley are rustic places on dirt roads, but the Bisquertt operation is a modern winery surrounding a stately family house that is more than 100 years old.

Tasting and tasting and more tasting 

  

The original vines of Chile were carried into South America centuries ago by European missionaries. Conditions of land and temperature -- cool, frost-free nights -- are among the world's best for growing grapes. But most Chilean red wines became worthy of export less than a decade ago, our guide said, with the import of oak barrels from the United States and France. The result was a much better aging process. 

Harvest time in Chile is February to May. Most Bisquertt reds are to be drunk within two to five years, although 1998 was a special harvest at the winery, and the 98 Zeus (60 percent cabernet and 40 percent carmenere) still is at its height, fetching $50 to $60 a bottle. The winery wanted $60, but I found it for $50 in a wine store in Santiago.

  

Tasting a sauvignon blanc at Bisquertt Winery

We sipped two Bisquertt wines that carry a Casa La Joya label. The first, a 2006 sauvignon blanc reserve, was a light yellow with a green tinge, medium bodied. 

Our group of tasters recognized passion fruit, asparagus and lime flavors. Oenophiles love to expound on sensory perceptions.

The second was a 2004 carmenere reserve, with intense ruby color. We smelled red berries and spices, and the wine tasted of red berries. Both wines sell in Chile for less than $10, and our group rated them highly. The Bisquertt winery also is known for its velvety merlot. The Colchagua Valley has its own wine website (click for English). 

Lunch was at the intimate Santa Cruz Plaza Hotel in the town of Santa Cruz, which is in the heart of the Colchagua Valley. The hotel has a Napa Valley, Calif., feel to it, with lots of red flowers and stone walkways through the green grounds. At lunch, more wine flowed, including a full-bodied cabernet by MontGras winery, a good buy in Chile for $6 to $8 a bottle. 

The Colchagua Museum next door is a private collection that offers an educational walk through the history of Chile, from the dinosaurs to the coming of the Spaniards and all the wars that followed. Armaments play a major role in the displays. The museum is well laid out. Displays are explained in Spanish, but local docents speak English. 

During the train ride before heading back to Santiago, waiters poured hearty red wines into small plastic cups as the Tren del Vino steamed tentatively across a wide glacial river, the snow-capped peaks of the Andes for a backdrop. I asked about the success of the train. 

A spokesman for Tren del Vino said the company is doing well and has hopes for expansion, including another restored steam engine. He said the operation was owned by a nonprofit company, but I was not able to ascertain whether the nonprofit part was on purpose or not. The weekly Wine Train tour leaves Santiago each Saturday morning. Tickets start at $97.

Uncorking the past 

  

Only later did I learn that most of our tour -- the Tren del Vino, the charming hotel in Santa Cruz and the museum with armaments -- is part of the empire of Chile's Carlos Cardoen. 

In U.S. news reports, Cardoen, 63, has acknowledged an arms-dealing past, which began in the 1980s when the United States sided with Iraq in its war with Iran. Cardoen, who holds a doctorate in metallurgical engineering from the University of Utah, still is under indictment for importing zirconium from the United States to Chile to make bombs. In a 2005 news report in the Miami Herald, Cardoen made no apologies for selling an estimated 29,000 cluster bombs to Saddam Hussein for more than $200 million. 

Now, the bomb maker turned winemaker is plotting to transform the Colchagua Valley into a profitable wine operation for all its landowners. 

Already, the valley has become a popular stop for international travelers, and low prices make Chile a good value for folks who like to taste wine. 

While it may be disconcerting to raise a glass of wine connected in any way to one of the world's old merchants of death, history continues to show that friends and enemies change -- and so do their products. 

These days, the bomb makers produce a fine cabernet.

Getting there:  Most major U.S. airlines offer connecting flights to Santiago, Chile. Tickets for summer (winter in the United States) start at about $1,000, but best prices are in package deals that include air and hotels. Molyneaux flew non-stop from Houston to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Continental Airlines, then to Santiago on LAN Chile. For Chile trip planning.

Comments

[william]

Scoop: Here's how The SISMI was to kidnap Carlos Remigio Cardoen.

News is source from the portal of Indymedia to the link:

http://piemonte.indymedia.org/article/6564

Other sensational revelations come to light correspondence from the super-confidential as on the SISMI's agent Altana Pietro was arrested in 2004 by the magistrate Anna Canepa.

In Italy the Nicolò Pollari SISMI's (Italian Military Secret Service) was to kidnap the largest international arms dealer: Carlos Remigio Cardoen Cornejo. Once abducted (pardon 'arrested' … after Abu Omar is not elegant to use some jargon) the arms dealer more dangerous in the world he would have been used as barter with the U.S.A.

Carlos Remigio Cardoen Cornejo is one of “most wanted fuggitive” and international research by the American CIA and FBI for selling disgusting weapons to countries around the world (the weapons are all crap but deadly “cluster bomb”better known as cluster bombs are even more). But the thing that was most angry George Bush Jr was that Cardoen is the trusted provider of Baghdad's rais Saddam Hussein.

We come to our country. What is the role of Italy?

In 2002 the Chilean arms dealer would have to come to Italy. A very secret meeting to be held near Portofino: for precision in the village of San Michele di Pagana, lovely lakeside town close to Paraggi in the beautiful setting of the Gulf of Tigullio. In this enchanting place stands the luxurious summer residence of a prominent lawyer business law firm in Genoa. In Genoa's Court file name of the mysterious lawyer was properly shielded with an "omitted" (so we are able to reveal the name).

The military secret service agent (SISMI) Altana Pietro comes to know of the secret meeting.

Altana Pietro is (as we have seen in the previous installments on Indymedia) is one of the men under Nicolò Pollari General (former Director of Military Intelligence). He is employed as an infiltrator in Genoa in social centers, for spying the Iranians of Irasco (which is currently under a rogatory USA) and to investigate many companies of high finance and important lawyers business (this explains the interest of military intelligence for a certain type of "business lawyer").

As mentioned, near Portofino was to be this summit between: Carlos Remigio Cardoen, his man of confidence in Italy Augusto Giangrandi - person known to the CIA is already arrested and deported from the U.S. for arms trafficking - mysterious lawyer business, and an Italian industrial Mr. Ing. Sergio Pucciarini.

Who is Sergio Pucciarini? It 'a former official of “Decima MAS” (the famous raiders of the special unit of the Royal Italian Navy then merged in Comsubin). The Ing. Pucciarini is CEO and owner of COSMOS Spa of Livorno. Tuscany industry specializing in Submarines manufacturing. For the precision Cosmos has a niche business that interest a lot to Saddam Hussein, and has developed a excellence technologyc know how that allows them to build a prototype of "Minisubmarine" can easily be adapted for use in war. Suitably armed the Minisubmarine can become another deadly weapon (best of “cluster bomb”).

The “Midget submarine MG110LR, SX756/S e SX908/PA” - these are the initials of minisubmarine - becomes the new object of desire of the Rais. Saddam Hussein for some time dreaming of being able to get their hands on these Italians jewels. Would very handy in the war against Iran (in the Persian Gulf Saddam has nothing to tackle the strategic naval forces of the Ayatollah).

Besides Saddam's military advisers familiar with the Cosmos Midget Minisubmarine because they've already seen in action in some drills in Pakistan (Pakistan Navy has also purchased some from Pucciarini). Who better than Cardoen could be used to satisfy the desires of the spicotic Iraqi dictator? Carlos Cardoen, from his office in Santiago, Chile organizes everything.

Together Giangrandi study the Cosmos business and all possible triangulations. In fact export minisubmarines is virtually impossible. The embargo on Iraq is very close (although craps made during the period of "Oil for Food" show the contrary) also transport in pieces is very problematic. Giangrandi has a brilliant idea. Why having to buy every single minisubmarine unit + spare parts + warehouse, and everything else and not directly buy the whole company? It 'a genial idea! On this basis takes off on the deal. In the game there are a lot of money. Many, many money. And almost all in “black”. Black as oil. The dictator does not mind spending. To have the Cosmos company makes available to Cardoen digits to six zeros (in $). The Iraqi crude-oil traded circumventing the UN sanctions with the S.O.M.O. (oil company of Saddam who used the ploy of the great "Oil for Food" to bypass the U.S. Embargo) produces stratospheric profits. At that time many weds businessman become millionaires overnight. Barter Agreements are concluded underhand own with all (remains haunted by Saddam's business also son of UN Secretary Kofy Annan). The off-shore accounts of Saddam overflow of cash that they literally did not see a chance to be spent. The Ing. Pucciarini instead has the water to the throat and has a tremendous need of money. For a (beautiful) handful of billions combines the deal and the Cosmos changing hands. Something less than $ 100 million at the time.

So Cosmos becomes the property of the Tecnologie Marine Italiana and Italtech (a company owned by Giangrandi with silent partner Cardoen) with Augusto Giangrandi as Sole Administrator (to appear Cardoen buyer Cosmos would be in bad taste).

But in the closing of the transaction - during the act of merger of Cosmos in the Tecnologie Marine Italiana - Giangrandi wants overdo, and does come out even companies linked directly to Carlos Cardoen as Cardoen International CIMSA (Rue des Alps, 7 Ginevra - Svizzera), Industrias Cardoen LTDA (Los Conquistadores, 1700, Piso 28 - Santiago del Cile) Inkel Company NV, Swisstech and Swissco (all occurring as guarantor).

Cosmos is paid a 50% cash and a 50% 'black' to get around the tax and (for obvious reasons) so as not to amounts which - both buyers and seller of Cosmos - do not want to appear. For peace of Pucciarini Cardoen and Giangrandi the sign and an informal "bank guarantee" of $ 34 million (two signatures on white paper headline that anyone could write).

At this point refined intrigue. The "cat and the fox" of the duo Giangrandi / Cardoen have a stroke of genius. Cosmos is already in their hands and have only paid half in cash (plus or minus) of the value of the holding of submarines. Officially, the company has already been paid and there are still a lot of money to be paid the balance. If you do not give anything to Pucciarini the "cat and the fox" you can put in your pocket almost $ 40 million.

And so it happens. Pucciarini no longer receives money from the other "black fund" gets very upset and threatened action heavy. First try with good manners (Cosmos ago notify an injunction). He wants his money. But nothing happens. Then back to the famous l business awyer who organized to purpose an arbitration, summoning to court the "cat and the fox" (There is nothing better than an arbitration to handle uncomfortable stories away from prying eyes). But Cardoen and Pucciarini are far from it. They are in Santiago of Chile to enjoy the Pucciarini's millions of dollars.

Carlos Remigio Cardoen but be very careful never to set foot in Italy. Maybe he smelled a trap. Maybe more who knows. What really happened is not possible to know. Only the 007 agent Altana Pietro, the Court of Genoa (and the Military Intelligence Service) know about this ongoing story. What is certain is that the 007 intelligent team of Nicolò Pollari there was very bad. Were not able to get a another chance to capture Cardoen. By the Court of Genoa the confidential Dossier signed "Peter Altana / SISMI" in the meantime has also mysteriously disappeared (maybe just changed cabinet after Indymedia's raids... but which one? Boh).

Nicolo Pollari and Marco Mancini with a bitter taste in mouth then console themselves with the Imam Abu Omar (meanwhile have the impunity guaranteed by the state).

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