Page 9 - Wig & Associates Lakewood VILLAGE Newsletter ~ March 2020 Issue

south america

A ROAD TRIP

ALONG URUGUAY’S ATLANTIC COAST,
FILLED WITH BOHO-CHIC BEACH

TOWNS, RITZY RESORTS AND FINE WINE TRAVEL

by Mark Johanson Jose Ignacio. Estancia Vik, the minutes longer. Turns out, all which is a good thing because
oldest, caters to polo players that wine comes from just 11 the population eats more beef
T he former Carlos and gaucho wannabes hoping miles away at Bodega Garzon. per capita than anywhere
home
artist
of
This winery, I learn the else on Earth. Perhaps that’s
to live the life promulgated
Paez Vilaro, now a
Playa Vik, the second property, ambitious. Owner Alejandro famous grill masters, Francis
labyrinthine museum and by Ralph Lauren ads. Sleek next morning, is nothing if not why one of the world’s most
hotel called Casapueblo, has lies beneath a “living roof” of Bulgheroni essentially created Mallmann, has built a home,
a way of confusing visitors. native plants on a knoll at the his own 524-acre wine region hotel and restaurant minutes
Perhaps it’s the Gaudi-esque edge of town, while the themed in a part of Uruguay where from the winery in the five-
architecture and Santorini bungalows of Bahia Vik take few would’ve dared to grow block cow town of Pueblo
color palette that make you advantage of their prime setting grapes. Garzon.
believe, for a fleeting moment, along Jose Ignacio’s calmest “It was a big risk as there The Argentine chef (who
that you’re far away on some stretch of sand. was no wine being produced has an Uruguayan mother)
Mediterranean shore when All Vik properties share a in this terroir,” Bulgheroni has made a name for himself
you’re really in Uruguay. has built a reputation as the Montevideo with investors common theme: contemporary recalls. “But when the first for his primal style of slow-
This stretch of the Miami of South America. Its (mostly from Argentina Uruguayan art. They showcase bottles came out in 2010, and roasting foods with fire, air,
Uruguayan coast from Punta star power is so strong that and Brazil) capitalizing on the works of luminaries such they were good, we began stones, smoke, salt, oil and
Ballena to Jose Ignacio Brazilian supermodels and Uruguay’s perennial stability as sculptor Pablo Atchugarry constructing the winery,” little else. Ever since he graced
often confounds those who Argentine movie stars flock in a rocky region. Nowhere and painter Carlos Musso in which opened in 2016. Now, the first season of the Netflix
expect South America to be here as much to relax in is this development more a way few museums in the some 20,000 tourists each year show “Chef’s Table,” he has
undeveloped, underprivileged their seafront condos as to be apparent than Jose Ignacio, country could afford to do. flock to Garzon to tour the garnered a legion of fanboys
or troubled. Here, it’s none of captured by paparazzi doing so. where beachfront properties “I like for people to live striking facility and taste bottles around the world, myself
those things. There are a handful of sell in the millions of dollars. with art as opposed to collect that are changing perceptions included. To find him cooking
I’ve lived in South America chic galleries set back from the Jose Ignacio manages to be or invest in art,” Vik explains of Uruguayan wine. in an old general store in this
for half a decade and, over sea that come alive each year moneyed without ever feeling dirt road gaucho town was like
the years, heard countless during Este Arte, one of South snobby or staid. Shabby chic watching a Western movie set
tales of the ritzy beaches that America’s top international is the overarching aesthetic. come to life.
curve along the Atlantic east of art fairs. Yet the most popular There are no shopping malls, I devour salt-baked
Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo. attraction is a piece of public art nightclubs or condos. The corvina fish, then fire-roasted
Why, I wondered, had so from Chilean sculptor Mario roads are largely unpaved, tenderloin tournedos draped
many South Americans Irarrazabal, which depicts a the cottages are unassuming, in chimichurri—all the while
made the continent’s second- hand partially rising out of the and it’s perfectly fine to walk musing about how the meal
smallest nation their summer sands of Brava Beach. barefoot into the town’s most is the perfect encapsulation
playground? And why were I stop for a quick lunch not popular eatery, La Huella— of my trip. The plates were
an increasing number of U.S. far from its jumbo-sized fingers that is, assuming you’ve made sumptuous, yet unpretentious,
celebrities following suit? The at I’marangatu, one of the see- your reservation weeks in while the setting was elegant,
intrigue festered until I finally and-be-seen restaurants, where advance. in part thanks to its rustic
booked a flight to see for I dine on grilled octopus and This air of carefree elegance charm.
myself. fresh mussels from Isla de has led stars such as Shakira to of the statement pieces that Garzon has, in its short Sure, Punta del Este may
The road east of Lobos, an island visible on purchase a home here, while line the lobbies of his hotels. life, become the nation’s have been a bit flashy, but
Casapueblo skirts an endless the horizon that’s home to the big-name U.S. visitors include Many rooms, particularly largest wine exporter with on the whole, this moneyed
gold-sand beach all the way to largest sea lion colony in the Mark Zuckerberg, Leonardo at Bahia Vik, were made South America’s first LEED- Uruguayan coast had managed
the coast’s largest resort town, Western Hemisphere. DiCaprio and Katy Perry, who in collaboration with local certified sustainable winery. to temper its good fortune in
Punta del Este, where even La Barra, with its white- can stroll the wind-whipped artists to “add a dimension And it doesn’t just make that such a way that even a humble
The Trump Organization is washed homes draped beach in relative obscurity. that is both stimulative and sunset-perfect rose. The rolling freelance journalist could feel
(four years behind schedule) in bougainvilleas, is the If there’s one person engaging.” granitic hills here receive cool welcomed to the party. And
aiming to get in on the action next resort as I continue responsible for placing Jose From the patios of the ocean breezes that temper the isn’t that what we all crave? To
in 2020 with a 25-story, eastward. Thirty years ago, Ignacio on the international Vik properties to the open- blazing sun, creating ideal feel like a celebrity even when
156-condominium Trump this coastline had little more tourist map its Norwegian- air cafes such as Solera in conditions for grapes such as we’re driving barefoot down
Tower. than a few humble fishing Uruguayan businessman town, everyone in Jose Ignacio tannat (Uruguay’s signature dirt roads covered in sand. n
With pulsing beach bars villages. Now, thanks to Alexander Vik and his seems to be dressed in flowing wine export) and albarino (its
and glassine apartment blocks new bridges that leapfrog its American wife, Carrie. white linen and tossing back secret weapon). ©2020 Chicago Tribune
fronting the emerald sea, it’s myriad lagoons, development The pair has opened three glasses of rose as if to coax the There are four cows for Distributed by Tribune
easy to see why Punta del Este has crept ever farther from design hotels in and around setting sun into lingering a few every human in Uruguay, Content Agency, LLC.

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