DRINKING IT ALL IN

The rich, volcanic soil of central Chile has nourished a food and wine legacy that bridges cultures, from Indigenous cooks to globe-trotting vintners.

- Jeff Chu

THE Mapuche, Chile's largest Indigenous group, have a word that defies concise translation. In English, peumayen is often rendered "place of dreams," but that underplays the importance of dreaming to the Mapuche. 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. Sometimes, you don't even know a peumayen until you're in it.

As I stepped into the forecourt of the Vik winery, in a fertile valley that the Mapuche call a "golden place," I found myself in a sweeping, water-filled plaza. Boulders and rocks gathered by the Chilean sculptor Marcela Correa and her architect husband, Smiljan Radić, had been scattered across the shallow pool. The installation, water mirror, serves as both a subtle nod to terroir and a grand welcome. It's also a feat of sustainable engineering: as water flows across the plaza, it cools the wine cellar beneath.

The winery building, designed by Radić, is no less remarkable. It looks as if a glowing spaceship had landed on the fertile soil. A translucent-white canopy bathes the interior in natural light. Glass façades offer clear views through the whole structure, to the vineyards and Andes mountains beyond. The winery complex telegraphs modernity, while the surrounding foothills testify to the passage of time.

On this ancient land that has fed countless generations, and which now gives rise to modern architecture and new wine, I glimpsed the Chile I was seeking: peumayen.

CHILE IS AMONG the richest countries in South America, as measured by per-capita GDP. But this 2,672-mile-long sliver of Pacific coast is wealthy in other ways. In his inaugural address in 2022, Chile's youngest-ever president, Gabriel Boric, then 36, nodded to Chile's history-not just its colonial past but also its gaping inequality-and voiced hope for "a dignified future," while also lauding its magical landscapes and agricultural bounty.