Chilean pisco producers want vineyards in the north of the country to become Unesco landscape heritage sites. The application could be presented in 2023.
Producers of pisco Chilean, a liquor made by distilling wine, prepare a candidacy for nominate two pisco regions in the north of the country as Unesco wine-growing cultural landscape heritagewith the aim of relaunching the product internationally and attracting more tourism to boost the economy in those territories.
The fishermen of the regions of Coquimbo and Atacama They sealed an agreement this Friday, at a summit held at the headquarters of the Regional Government of Coquimbo, in the town of La Serena, with representatives of the Government, politicians, local authorities and other civil society actors, to join forces in the candidacy.
In the event that the application to Unesco is successful, the valleys of the Andean foothills of the Coquimbo and Atacama regions will be the first in America to be declared a wine cultural landscapealong with areas with a tradition of producing wine such as the French Burgundy and Champagne.
International presence
“The candidacy requires mobilizing the public and private sectors, understanding all sectors; it’s something holistic aspires to promote the entire territory, a very interesting option for the region and for all of Chile“, he assured EFE the person in charge of the historical investigation of the candidacy of the pisqueros, Pablo Lacoste.
“Includes all sectorsthink of the entire territory, promote productive chains, value gastronomy, tourist attractions, native peoples, crafts, art, culture ”, added the historian.
The declaration of the pisco valleys as a wine cultural landscape would give the liquor a greater international exposure than the current one, which could attract more tourism to the region; The objective of the actors involved is to structure the pisco areas with the greatest economic activity to anchor the local population.
Chilean pisco producers will bring to Unesco the declaration of their valleys as wine cultural landscape this 2023, after completing the work started in 2021 to document the historical, architectural and cultural heritage linked to pisco production.
Chilean Pisco: Linked to Tradition
The two applicant pisco regions are located in the north of Chile, in an arid zone at the gates of the Atacama desert and on the slopes of the Andes; its weather warm and sunny makes the grape grow sweeter than in other areas of the countryan essential characteristic to produce the pisco distillate.
The narrow arid valleys of the foothills are dyed green at their lower levels, irrigated by narrow rivers that make possible the agricultural tradition of those areas, which had been established before the colonization of the country by Europeans.
This is the case of the Waqar pisco company, run by the Camposano family and located in the Limarí valley, and which is committed to a limited edition artisanal pisco that commands a higher value per bottle than its more commercial equivalents; its distillery dates back to the mid-19th century and, although it has already suffered interruptions, the current generation has resumed the family tradition.
Half of Waqar’s product goes abroad, mainly to Europe, and he has even won a prize in a London cocktail contest with a recipe made with his distillate: “These valleys made pisco famous one hundred years ago, and today they continue to be judged for their tradition and their great contribution to the quality of pisco”the founder of Waqar, Jaime Camposano, told EFE.
The fisherman uses his sensory experience to achieve the product he is looking for, with a process that varies slightly each time it is repeated; It is an artisan technique from the choice of raw material to the final bottling.
For Camposano, the declaration of the valley where Waqar is located, the Limarí, as a wine cultural landscape “it would not only be an award”but “the end of a very long history” of formation of the pisco valleys as wine producers.
“We remain attached to the territory and tradition; here are the machinery used by my grandfather, my great-grandfather, the place where they distilled”, concludes Camposano.