Earthquake in Santa Cruz, Chile: Harvest Good News

Thankfully, it seems the worst fears about how the grape harvest would go this year were unfounded. Most vineyards have suffered losses to infrastructure, but in general things aren't as bad as they first appeared. Vineyards are confident that this year will be no different than previous years- apart from the fact that they will need to produce more wine to re-stock what they've lost. There was excess wine making capacity in Chile before the earthquake so, although quite a lot of equipment was damaged, there's enough spare to be able to produce the wine required by contracts with distributors.

Also, because the majority of wineries used new buildings for their wine making, processing and bottling lines they were fully insured against earthquakes...meaning financial losses will be minimised.

This is really positive news, particularly for the workers. They have jobs...now we just need to put roofs over their heads...

On the tourism front, things are still a little up in the air. Quite a few wineries have based at least a part of their tourism offer on the renovation and use of old Colonial houses. Many of these are either in ruins or severely damaged. The good news is that we're coming into low season so everyone has time to rebuild their tourist bases. Again, excellent news for the local employees and community.