Three hours south of Lima, we drove past tract and tract of dry, sandy land spotted with dilapidated buildings abandoned by families and cacti. We were making our way to La Hacienda La Caravedo, the oldest and arguably most famous Pisco vineyard and distillery, but I couldn’t imagine for the life of me that this desert landscape would give way to greenery and life. We wove our way through the narrow streets in the outskirts of Ica and suddenly, the buildings turned into grapevines, creating a natural tunnel and obscuring the outside world from the van windows.
The tunnel deposited us at the front of La Hacienda, a grand compound of orange and yellow adobe that contrasted with the cement and brick village homes layered with dust. We walked through the portón or main entrance and were welcomed by the site of the primary villa, the distillation plant, the traditional Pisco processors, and acres of vineyards that stretched out into the haze of the day and ended at the base of the Andes mountains.
In the villa, we enjoyed a midday meal with entertainment of traditional horse dancing out in the yard. My meal was stewed beef, rice, and a puree of lima beans or pallares which originated in the dry, desolate Ica Valley. The lima beans were delicious and vibrant in their bright green color. We also tried a salad with lima beans and olives, yet another local crop, and I began to realize that certain crops are primed to thrive in this seemingly hostile environment.
I’ll be honest. I truly thought that desert-like conditions of dryness and dust would not be able to support the growth of such important crops like olives, grapes, pecans or lima beans. I thought that for a crop to be successful, it needed ambient moisture and a never ending supply of water. But, as I saw later that day on our tour of the vineyards, some crops do grow and even flourish in this climate, covering the sandy soil in greens and grays for rows on end.
I wasn’t too far off in my preconception of the desert, though, as the vineyard uses specific techniques to reduce energy and water usage and reinvest in the natural world around them. For example, in the condensation process of distillation, cold water is needed and they showed us a fountain of water in which water is sprayed into the air to cool it and then pumped back into the distillation process to be reused. In addition, the parts of the grapes and vines that are not used to create Pisco are reused as compost and fertilization in the vineyard soil. These techniques are used to ensure that the vineyard and Pisco process doesn’t take too much from nature and instead works with it in harmony so that the greenery of the desert can survive and continue to be the delicious heritage crops of Peru.
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