TWO GRAPES, SLIGHTLY BRUISED, YZAGUIRRE WINE HARVEST IN

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

It was in the middle and late 1500s when the first Spanish monks arrived in Chile to convert the natives to the Catholic faith.

Ensconced in their monasteries, the monks began the tradition of establishing vineyards  in the otherwise desolate and dry Chilean highlands. The monastery, located 4 hours south of Santiago, the capital, in the mountain valleys is considered to be the heart of Chilean wine country and the grapes grown there are the delight of wine connoisseurs.

Over the years, the quality of the Benedictine grapes and the wine made from the grapes grown there acquired a reputation for its full flavor, and robust body.

But there was a problem. When the monks transported the wine in bottles over the mountain roads, the bottles inevitably bumped against each other in the ox-drawn carts and shattered, spoiling nearly half the load before it got to the market. They devised a method to prevent it by wrapping the bottles in burlap to prevent the loss. (See graphic above.) 

One of the monks – one Erasmo Yzaguirre – was a native of the Basque country in the Pyrenees mountain range that separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe. Over the years, as his bloodline thinned out, his descendants started looking for any heirs that might take over the vast wineries he had established in Chile.

They sought the ancestry genealogies through church records and found out that a direct descendant of the Eyzaguirre bloodline could be traced to the tax assessor-collector of Cameron County, one Antonio Yzaguirrre.

Only last month, Tony – as he is known to his few friends – got a knock on his office door. The man, a monk, gave him the news that he was the direct descendant of the Basque Benedictine monk who had established the winery in Chile.

He carried a case of bottles of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon produced in the highlands of Chile and told the astounded tax assessor collector that he was the sole descendant of the founder of the vineyards.

"He brought me a case of their finest wine," said Yzaguirre. "Now I own one of the most productive vineyards on the continent. Usually, I prefer a cold brewsky, but I'm starting to develop a taste for the lowly grape. For example, I can tell this wine came from grapes that grew facing the east in the mountains of Chile. It's somewhat pretentious, of course, but delightful to the palate. Bottoms up!