The Global Life: Tierra del Vino

South America's wine country is exporting designer grapes and embracing eno-tourism

On a continent known for samba and tango, Chile is the sober exception. But not for long, according to Mario Pablo Silva, managing director of the Casa Silva winery in Chile's Colchagua Valley, whose family's once staid operation is poised to make winemaking more of a fiesta. "By September," Silva gushes, "we plan to offer a high-end hotel with a restaurant, polo games during tastings, Chilean rodeo and horseback riding" beneath the Andes. Casa Silva and many other Chilean wineries are partying because their high-stakes bet--a red-wine grape called Carmenere--is paying off. Brought to South America from France in the 1800s,...

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