RECIPE: Terremoto

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 – 5 tablespoons of Pineapple Ice Cream
• 250 ml of our Nice Rack White
• A dash of Grenadine for tasting (while Grenadine is the most common ingredient used here, it is also traditional in Chile to use Fernet Branca, Pisco, Rum, or Cognac in leu of Grenadine)

 

Directions 

• Scoop the desired amount of Pineapple Ice Cream into the glass. At minimum the Ice Cream should fill at least ¼ of the glass, at most ½. Then fill the glass as close to the rim as you can with Nice Rack White, adding just a dash of the Grenadine/Fernet/Pisco/Rum or Cognac to top off the drink. Terremoto’s are traditionally drunk with a straw, but this is of course, optional.

 

The Wine

            Nice Rack White is our signature white wine, an ever-popular blend of Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Viognier. It is the sweetest of our white wines, usually sitting on the higher end of a 1 on the sweetness scale and designed to be an easy-drinking summer wine perfect for quenching your thirst on those long, hot Okanagan summer days.

           

The Story

This is widely claimed to be the most popular cocktail in all of Chile, but the exact origins of this curious drink have long been buried by the mighty tremors of Chilean history.

It was supposedly invented in the immediate aftermath of the horrific 1985 Algarrobo Earthquake by an unknown bartender in Valparaiso, making use of what few ingredients in the bar had survived the seismic event. It is said to have been a German journalist, who was working in the country at the time of the tragedy, who coined its name “Terremoto (Earthquake)” after consuming so much he found it difficult to stand, just as he had during the frightful event that the country was still at that moment recovering from.

Terremoto’s are usually served in a regular sized Glass (approx.. 500ml). However, in Chile it is also possible to order a Terremoto in a large Jar in which case it is referred to as a “Cataclismo (Cataclysm)”. Likewise, if a Terremoto is ordered in a smaller Glass it is instead referred to as a “Replica (Aftershock)”. Less common variations of this cocktail involve the use of beer instead of wine (known as a Maremoto (Seaquake)”, as well as pisco instead of wine (known as a “Tsunami (same in English as Spanish)”.

A Note about the Wine: The Terremoto is traditionally made with a uniquely Chilean type of wine known as Pipeño. Named for the large oak vats in which they are fermented (which resemble pipes), Pipeño is a very old style of Chilean wine making whose exact roots, while obscured by the fog of history, surely date back to the earliest Spanish settlements in the country. Back then, it was quite common for varietals brought from Spain to crossbreed with wild grapes, creating unique varietals specific to an individual family’s own vineyards. These “country grapes” as they were then (and are still to this day) known were regarded as a type of ‘peasant wine’, overlooked by Chilean High Society but nevertheless quite popular with the majority of the country. These grapes virtually never have a proper names nor do they usually identify any of the varietals used in their making (as very few actually have names). Instead, all of the grapes are simply thrown together in the Pipeño vats to ferment and then bottled (usually forgoing any filtration, which gives the wine an unappealing brownish colour), producing a cheap, sweet wine that’s usually sold by the jug. Pipeño comes as both a red and white wine, but Terremoto’s are made exclusively with white Pipeño.

Pipeño is rarely, if ever, available in Canada. So for the sake of making the legendary Terremoto at home we instead suggest you use our Nice Rack White. While it has gone through a proper filtration (and we are actually aware of which grapes it has been made from) it’s flavour profile is nevertheless very comparable to a Chilean Pipeño wine: sweet, full of fruitful flavour, and light in body.

 

Disfrutar (enjoy)!

 

Sources

• “The World’s Best Drinks” published by Lonely Planet
• ChileCooks.cl