Quake-hit Chile winemakers yearn to toast recovery
Quake-hit Chile winemakers yearn to toast recovery
Mar 26, 2010 6
(Reuters) - Last month's devastating earthquake destroyed 125 million liters (33 million gallons) of Chilean wine -- and with it a little piece of the country's heart.
Wine serves as a proxy for Chile's ambitions. Although high in Latin American terms, the living standard here is not at a European level, just as the best Chilean wines are not yet classified like a Barolo or Bordeaux. But in both cases they are goals Chileans aspire to.
"Wine is Chile's ambassadorial product. It's the only product anybody knows about," said Rene Merino, president of the industry group Wines of Chile.
"When people buy a car, they don't know that a good part of the copper cables inside come from Chile and nobody cares, either. The product that correlates with the country is wine."
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