Since the last update, after the tremors and tsunami scare, there still wasn’t much need for me at the winery. Peter actually went on Monday last week and we were told not even to come until Friday so they could “figure out what to do with us”. I heard that there was some damage to the front part, aka, “el palacio”, where the tour starts and the sales room is, so they weren’t doing tours for the week. I finally showed up at work on Friday the 12th, after 2 weeks of post-terremoto vacation, and was sadly surprised by a haggard, crumbling palacio. I wasn’t able to take pictures, it is roped off to everyone because of the danger of it crumbling on the inside, but I snuck in with a guy from the winery and saw all the damage: broken windows, craked paint, dry wall, crumbling pillars and supports caving in, covered in dust and debris (and this was after it was all cleaned up) It was so sad. Luckily since the harvesting patio and tanks were all constructed after the front part, there was not as much structural damage. Still, hundreds of wine glasses broke, a tank ruptured and spilt 30,000 liters of fermenting wine and the base supports on most of the stainless steel tanks bent. But harvest must go on! Since the palacio will not be open to the public for another year, after reconstruction, I am an official laborer from here on out! Which in all honestly, I am enjoying a lot more- Instead of regurgitating the wine knowledge that I already have to English speaking tourists, I’m learning new vocab/processes and using my Spanish all day. My brain and body are definitely getting a work out (3 days a week at least). Now that my draining 3 day work week has ended, here are some examples of my ever changing daily to do’s. Patricio and Demi are two guys that are in charge of most of the manual operations, and they receive “work orders” everyday from the wine makers and people in the office who are constantly testing, taking samples and regulating the wine in the 100+ tanks that are in use. I have been working with Patricio, a really sweet 27yr old from Chile. (He’s worked in California for a few harvests, also in Australia, studied English there and is also currently studying French so he can study oenology in Bordeaux. He wants to be the master wine maker and eventually open his own winery…dream big!) So I tag along with him most days helping complete work orders. Most of the time we are working inside with the tanks, while Demi and Pete are working outside with the grapes, crushing and pumping must inside to tanks. I’ve been connecting pumps and hoses with clamps and nitrogen gas to transfer 20-40,000 liters of wine from one tank/stage to another in the wine making process. I’ve been lifting industrial hoses, climbing on top of fermentation tanks, measuring the must volume, and doing chemical additions. After the fist day, Pete and I decided they put way too much trust in us when they had us blindly measure out multiple kilo’s of chemical product, climb onto the top of tanks and dump it in….so you don’t want to be supervising this and making sure these two dumb gringos aren’t messing up your million dollar wine making process?...no?...okToday, Wednesday, aside from tanks and hoses and pumps, the winemakers and Patricio had a tasting of all the wines that are nearing the end of the fermentation process. I got to join in on the tail-end and try some unfiltered, fermenting Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and some different sparkling varieties. So cool! It was really interesting to try the wines before the finished product. I was surprised how much residual sugar they all still had…they were super sweet and obviously needed some more time for all the sugar to be converted to alcohol. So these past 3 days have been a whirlwind of a learning experience but I feel pretty comfortable with all the day to day processes, I have been using and getting more comfortable with my Spanish and continue to meet more people. Since there are only 3 other girls that work in the same sector, let’s just say it’s pretty easy to “make friends” with all the guys. Tomorrow night there’s a Vina Mar soccer game that Pete’s going to play in between the different “sectors” of the winery, and afterwards we’re all invited to Patricio’s house for wine tasting and drinking. Now that it’s all said and done, I’m really glad to be back and in a routine (even though it’s only half of the week) and now I have a 4 day weekend to look forward to!