Pisco Elqui

Before the Spanish arrived, the valley of the Claro River and its tributaries was home to people of the Molle and Diaguita cultures and was later drawn into the Inca sphere. After the conquest the valley became the property of Pedro de Valdivia, who passed it to Francisco de Aguirre. Notarial records show that in the 16th century both Indigenous people and Spaniards dug clay in the Quebrada de la Greda to make pottery, including the jars used for pisco, and the settlement took its first name, La Greda, from that clay.

In the 18th century large estates covered the valley. On one of them, Hacienda La Torre, in what is now Pisco Elqui, pisco was made between 1727 and 1733, and historians have described it as one of the earliest pisco distilleries anywhere; an inventory taken in 1733 lists three jars of pisco. In 1868 José Rodríguez Callejas dug a cellar in the village for a winery and distillery that became Los Nichos, the oldest working pisco distillery in Chile.

After a smallpox epidemic in 1873, residents renamed the village La Unión to remember the solidarity shown during the tragedy. In 1936 a law renamed it Pisco Elqui, on the initiative of three deputies including Gabriel González Videla, as part of Chile's effort to strengthen its claim to the pisco designation of origin. The change was controversial, and Gabriela Mistral, who had spent part of her childhood here, disagreed with it and hoped the old name would return. The village is now part of the commune of Paihuano.

Pisco is the heart of local identity. The village carries the drink's name, its slopes are planted with pisco grapes, and family distilleries invite visitors to see how the spirit is made and aged. The rivalry with Peru over who owns pisco is felt strongly here, since the village's very name was part of Chile's case.

The poet Gabriela Mistral, Chile's first Nobel laureate in literature, grew up partly in Pisco Elqui and in neighbouring Montegrande, and she is a constant presence in the valley's sense of itself. Her opposition to the renaming is part of local memory.

The Elqui Valley's clear, dark skies have made astronomy a large part of the valley's draw. Diaguita designs appear widely in the region's crafts, and the artisans' village at Horcón, a few kilometres away, has craft stalls. Life is rural and unhurried, centred on the plaza and its church, with summer bringing crowds of Chilean families on holiday.

Pisco Elqui has about 800 inhabitants, a number that roughly doubles in summer. It sits in foothill country at around 1,300 metres, in the commune of Paihuano, which runs a municipal office in the village for local administration.

Farming and tourism are the main sources of work. Growers produce grapes for pisco and for the table, both for Chile and for export, together with apricots, peaches, figs, avocados, plums, custard apples, papayas and citrus fruit. Several of these fruits are turned by hand into jams, syrups, juices and cakes. Guesthouses, hostels, campsites, restaurants and tour operators employ many more people, especially in the summer season.

The rhythm of the day follows the sun and the seasons: work in the fields and vineyards, quiet afternoons around the plaza, and busy evenings in summer when visitors arrive. Water is the main concern across the region, where a long drought has hit farmers hard and caused disputes between agriculture, mining and towns.

Pisco is the product that defines the village: a brandy distilled from aromatic grapes grown in the valley, often aged in wooden barrels, which gives it a mellow flavour while keeping the scent of the fruit. Visitors drink it as a pisco sour, in Chile made with lime juice, or as a piscola, mixed with cola, although some of the family distillers prefer it to be drunk on its own.

The valley's fruit is the other speciality. Apricots, figs, papayas and citrus fruit are made into jams, syrups and juices sold in the village, and the small, fragrant Chilean papaya is preserved in syrup across the region. Raisins and dried peaches from the Elqui are common.

Meals are Chilean country cooking: empanadas de pino, baked beef turnovers; pastel de choclo, a pie of sweet ground corn over a meat filling; and cazuela, a clear stew. Goat's cheese from the dry hills of the region and roast kid goat, cabrito, appear on menus, and the lawn of the plaza is a favourite place to sit with a drink in the evening.