Cristobal Palma
Mapuche, Chiles largest Indigenous group, have a word that defies concise translation.
To them, a dream can be a wish, a hope, or a prophecy.
It can be an idyll visited in slumber, or a fantasyland that stirs the imagination.
The infinity pool at the hotel Vik Chile, in the Millahue Valley.Credit:Cristóbal Palma
Sometimes, you dont even know apeumayenuntil youre in it.
The installation,water mirror,serves as both a subtle nod to terroir and a grand welcome.
The winery building, designed by Radic, is no less remarkable.
A pond outside andBeyond Vira Vira.Cristóbal Palma
It looks as if a glowing spaceship had landed on the fertile soil.
A translucent-white canopy bathes the interior in natural light.
Glass facades offer clear views through the whole structure, to the vineyards and Andes mountains beyond.
From left: Isolina Huenulao still keeps sheep and fruit trees on her farm; Huenulao, an Indigneous winemaker.Cristóbal Palma
The winery complex telegraphs modernity, while the surrounding foothills testify to the passage of time.
Chile is among the richest countries inSouth America, as measured by per-capita GDP.
But this 2,672-mile-long sliver of Pacific coast is wealthy in other ways.
A Japanese-inspired garden at the Vik Chile hotel.Cristóbal Palma
It seemed apt to begin at Vik.
They planted vines, and eight years later, the winery opened, along with a 22-room hilltop hotel.
Ours was decorated with 10 blown-glass works by Dale Chihuly.
Indigenous winemaker Isolina Huenulao checks her vines.Cristóbal Palma
Guests are encouraged to roam the grounds.
The vines very presence speaks to change: grapes are not native to this country.
In the 1540s, the Spanish imported vines mostly the Pais variety to make communion wine.
The stark, modern architecture of the Vik winery.Cristóbal Palma
Subsequent grapes were introduced, including carmenere, which was originally mislabeled as merlot.
In the late 1800s, phylloxera, an aphid-like, root-devouring insect, decimated carmenere throughout Europe.
But thanks to Chiles relative geographic isolation, the imported vines endured.
From left: A dish of pork and celery root at the Pavilion, the Vik’s restaurant; small bites laid in a box of flowers at the Pavilion.Cristóbal Palma
It wasnt until the early 1990s that DNA testing confirmed the Chilean grapes true identity.
After we toured the winery, Garcia led us to an underground tasting room.
She had pulled three 2021 varietals to try: cabernet sauvignon, carmenere, and syrah.
Rafting down the Liucura River.Cristóbal Palma
The cab was young but lovely, she said with relief.
Two weeks ago, we had a sample that was awful.
The syrah was less tannic, much smoother.
From left: Yessica Antipichún and her two daughters outside her restaurant, Matetun; the Zomo Ngen shop, which is run by a women’s cooperative in Curarrehue.Cristóbal Palma
My favorite was the carmenere light and dangerously drinkable.
What we tasted would never be bottled as is: Vik sells only blends.
We are trying to find the best expression of what is Chilean, Garcia said.
From left: Rodolfo Guzmán, the chef at Boragó, in Santiago; Rucapillán, an active volcano in central Chile.Cristóbal Palma
From Vik, we drove north to Santiago.
The city may still be struggling, but its also still dynamic and creative.
Even when the dishes sounded familiar, the presentations werent.
A fish and vegetable pairing at the resort andBeyond Vira Vira.Cristóbal Palma
Our juicy cuts sat on a daub of tangy fig jam.
Next to that was an edible tree-branch sculpture, painstakingly crafted from Chilean truffle and fig.
An unexpected bonus: the lamb was paired with the 2015 Vik Millahue red.
Hotel Antumalal occupies a Bauhaus-style building on the shores of Lake Villarrica.Cristóbal Palma
Guzman grew up during Chiles economic boom in the 1980s and 90s.
People would say, Native ingredients?
Those are cheap things, he said.
The Liucura River as seen from a lounge at Vira Vira.Cristóbal Palma
People wanted foreign cuisines.
He crisscrossed the country, collecting ancestral knowledge by interviewing farmers and tasting the wild.
For the first six years, we were on the verge of bankruptcy, he said.
Hotel Antumalal, seen from Lake Villarrica.Cristóbal Palma
Then, in 2012, the noted food critic Andrea Petrini dined there.
He said to me, Ive never seen anything like this, Guzman recalled.
The next year, Borago made the inaugural Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list for Latin America.
The day before, the restaurant was totally empty, he said.
The next day, there wasnt a single empty chair.
In 2021, Borago was named the No.
1 most sustainable restaurant by the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, and this year placed No.
29 on its Worlds 50 Best list.
For that, we headed back to the countryside.
We flew south from Santiago to Temuco, the capital of the Araucania region and the Mapuche heartland.
Huenulao once grew vegetables, but in 2013, at age 59, she pivoted.
Six years later, Vina Wuampuhue debuted its first vintage.
Im innovating, Huenulao said as we sipped her beautifully crisp sparkling pinot noir.
Growing grapes, she added, would have been crazy before.
While winemaking isnt traditional to the Mapuche, she farms according tokimun,a catchall word for ancestral wisdom.
Pruning, she explained, always happens underla luna menguante,or the waning moon.
Huenulao loves to entertain.
I prefer for people to know who made the wine, she said.
For millennia, its starchy seeds have been a key source of sustenance.
Today the tree is threatened by overharvesting and the planting of fast-growing pine for lumber.
She invited me to grind araucaria seeds with a hand mill to make flour.
As we cooked, Antipichun told me that her Pehuenche father married a non-Mapuche woman, breaking tradition.
Its one reason she didnt grow up speaking Mapudungun and still isnt fluent.
At school, theyre teaching the kids now, but twenty years ago, they didnt, she said.
Its still more difficult to have a Mapuche surname than a Spanish one.
After living for a time in Santiago, Antipichun returned home and reconnected with her roots.
The Mapuche see connection everywhere: around the table, through storytelling, in nature itself.
Rivers arent just rivers.
Theyre the earths veins, carrying snowmelt from the mountains above to replenish the lakes below.
The water was remarkably clear: we glimpsed trout and king salmon, which return to spawn every year.
These fish, too, signify change.
European settlers introduced the trout for fishing, while the salmon escaped from aquaculture operations on the coast.
Mapuche people rarely eat them; theyre viewed as ecological invaders.
The guide told me it last erupted in 2015.
Some locals believe that volcanic activity reflects the spirits anger.
We saw smoke puffing from the top a sign, perhaps.
Before we began hiking, Landeta said that we had to ask the spirits permission.
We formed a circle around a ceremonial fire and paused for silent meditation.
Then we began our trudge up some 4,000 feet.
The higher we went, the trickier the terrain.
We clambered over boulders and traversed the slippery gravel left by long-ago lava flows.
Mid morning, we rested on a small plateau carpeted with ground-hugging shrubs.
One of Landetas deputies, Osiel Aqueveque, plucked some white berries and handed them to me to taste.
I remembered how Chef Guzman had warned me about poisonous berries.
Sensing my doubt, Aqueveque said reassuringly: These are delicious.
They were chaura,as theyre known, are a bit tangy, a bit sweet.
As we inched uphill, younger hikers swept past us.
Five hours in, we reached the edge of a glacier, about 7,800 feet above sea level.
The ice looked like a giant slab of craggy Roquefort, white deeply veined with blue.
(I was hungry.)
Jump over that crevasse.
he said, pointing.
But then, as my eyes adjusted, another black speck grew larger, then another, then another.
Soon, I could see six Andean condors.
They rode the thermals, circling, spiraling, and diving.
The Mapuche see the condor as an agent of renewal.
Aqueveque smiled as we watched the condors carve the sky.
A sign, he said softly.
In that place, in that moment, everything seemed possible.
Hotel Antumalal
ThisBauhaus-style propertyon the shores of Lake Villarrica is a great base for exploring the area.
What to Do
Cook at Matetun.
Learn to make Mapuche dishes with Yessica Antipichun, who runs a restaurant in the town of Curarrehue.
Hike Rucapillan.
A licensed guide is required to climb the volcano.
My daylong hike was organized by Zenit Travel, which provided all gear, including boots and ice axes.
