At 10 a.m. we set off again, from Huacachina to head for Nazca. Our only stop is a Pisco vineyard where we can see the distillation technique and taste various kinds of liquors.
The vineyard is in a fairly poor neighborhood, however it is very elegant, clearly for tourists.
The vineyard guide shows us the tools with which Pisco (very similar to schnapps actually) is distilled. After that comes the moment everyone has been secretly waiting for ( not even too secretly actually), the tasting. I sit in the front row, to my left a lady from Puerto Rico, who tells me how beautiful her land is, and to my right an English couple, who ask me if I will be able to stay sober. Of course I answer yes (poor deluded man).
The tasting flows smoothly, with small coffee glasses we taste various liquors, including a couple of straight Pisco. The guide asks me how it is and I reply that it tastes like schnapps. Then he asks me where I was from and I reply that I am from Italy (topical moment). He takes a liking to me, then again how could he not, given my Spanish!!! After the tasting is over, we are told that there would be a game. The game consists of drinking a small glass of Pisco, cleaning the glass very well, the guide turns it upside down on top and if a drop falls you have to drink another. To the bitter end. Panic, no one wants to be volunteered, it is 11:30 a.m. and we have already had at least a dozen glasses. The guide then decides to choose people, of course who will have been able to choose first? The Italian! 😀
I start with the first glass, the guide hands it to me, does his usual show with ritual refrain at the end of which I drink! All at once, without leaving a drop! The guide, however, to be a nice guy invents the rule that one must say salut before drinking, so my attempt is invalidated. :/
Another drink, while the mind is already quite confused. A drop falls, another glass, more and more confused…another one, luckily the drop stays clinging to the small glass, however I am quite hungover. The game ends, lunch is eaten…however, the Pisco kicks in…lucidity begins to wane…and the day is still long…at least though the bus ride will pass quickly 😀