Liz Caskey

Co-Founder, Liz Caskey Culinary & Wine Experiences

Tell us about you and your company. What do you do and what do you specialize in?

I started my company in 2004 in Santiago, Chile. We specialize in culinary and wine travel in South America. In January 2021, we expanded into Napa, California. The business started as a merging of my passion for travel and cooking. I landed in Chile in early 2001, so the Chilean wine scene as we know it today was in the process of being “birthed.” Living in a wine-producing region, the wine bug bit, so I went to sommelier school. As I visited wineries during the program and tasted many wines, I saw the potential to grow our Santiago market/cooking tour into a larger travel company, since most visitors were hitting the very large, commercial wineries like Concha y Toro. My husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) joined and we followed our curiosity and taste together. We grew beyond Chilean borders and wine regions organically into Mendoza (called by the wine, of course), then further into Argentina, Uruguay (which has a great albeit small wine industry), up into the very hot culinary scene in Peru and into Colombia. I have always been a cook and a storyteller, and I love to know how things are made. I experience the world, and travel, through this language of food and wine. Searching for that sense of place has always been the why.

What’s the entry level to talk to you? 

We start with a very detailed questionnaire and brief call to make sure we’re a good fit to create a trip together. Custom travel is very much a collaboration, so it’s important to feel that out from the get-go. To start crafting an itinerary, our travel consulting fees start at US$250 per person, depending on the length, complexity of the trip, and group size. The travel consulting fee is applied to the total of the booked trip with us, although non-refundable if the trip doesn’t move forward or is canceled. There’s a lot of work, knowledge, and time poured into each and every itinerary that we have to cover to design a trip. Itineraries really vary greatly in price and by country, although generally start from $900 to $1,000 per person per day.

What is the sweet spot of your expertise?

We are passionate about food, wine and design, and how the local culture becomes accessible through them. We have a deep appreciation for how ingredients are crafted and the people behind them. We believe this is an essential need in any journey (we all need to eat sooner than later!) and accompany this with the best wine and amazing location. It is a great way to explore the world.

A favorite trip you planned that’s exemplary of your travel philosophy?

There are truly so many, although one that springs to mind immediately, and I actually was fortunate to co-host, was a trip to Chile’s Atacama Desert that crossed overland into northern Argentina and the wine region of Salta. We started in the Atacama Desert and set up a series of amazing meals and wine tastings within the context of natural/adventure excursions like an al fresco lunch overlooking the entire Death Valley above San Pedro de Atacama. The group arrived in 4x4s, we wined and dined, and then rode down the mountains on horseback, galloping at the end through the sand dunes. We crossed the altiplano, at nearly 13,000 feet, into the northern part of Argentina and descended into Purmamarca with its Rainbow Mountains and quaint whitewashed haciendas. We based in the high-altitude wine region of Cafayate, which is akin to the Grand Canyon meeting wine country. Here it’s all about outstanding high altitude wines like Torrontes, Malbec, and Syrah and jaw-dropping scenery from Dali-esque rock formations and canyons to towering Cardon cacti, vines growing at 3,500 meters above sea level, and ancient adobe villages where you can visit traditional weavers and farmers drying aji (chilies—side note: Salta is the only part of Argentina that loves spicy food!). Salta is intriguing, too, as there are ultra-modern outposts like the James Turrell museum at Donald Hess’s Colome winery, which is so remote. It’s a photographer and foodie dream. 

You recently landed in Napa, California to expand your concept…tell us about this.

Given our wine background, we had a longstanding relationship with Napa and had visited many times over the years. It is truly Chile’s “geographical twin,” between the Mediterranean climate, wine country, Pacific, and even the Latinx culture. I always felt that if/when we put a foot back in the US, it would be here. Things aligned in early January to make the move and expand not only our travel concept to Napa and Sonoma, but also get a brand new project off the ground to bring South America into the US (more on that below).

Our approach to Napa and Sonoma are a little different than in South America—it’s even more food & wine centric here. It is also impressive how similar the wines can be when compared to Chile, so we felt it would be natural to connect the region as part of a concept of Wine of the Americas (uniting North and South). Given how “transited” Napa is and the sheer amount of wineries, it often can feel very overwhelming. The starting point has to be clarity in the wine—to not get lost in the wine “flashiness” and commercial nature of the valley. Napa is going through a bit of a passing of the torch right now, so it’s about mixing the classical places with the younger generation pushing the envelope. Our travel approach is still very tied to the local culture, so we look for what we love in South America, which is a connection to the place and the producers directly. 

What is a place we should consider traveling to, that could really use our dollars, and what is a place we should pause on because it sees too many tourists?

Right before the pandemic hit, Machu Picchu was becoming quite overtouristed. It changed from being an archaeological marvel to a tourism cash cow when they switched from one to two daily ticket shifts (to its detriment). Part of visiting a remote, mystical, and natural place like this is the ability to find those moments when you are not fighting crowds. 

The truth is that today, South America has been quite affected by the pandemic—more than the US or Europe. Even in the boom times, the region’s infrastructure was always in fragile balance, and Covid pushed it to the brink. Tourism does constitute a large portion of the region’s economies, but recovery will be slow-going, with many missteps, and on a longer timeline than in developed regions. South American governments, with perhaps the exception of a few like Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay, have been challenged to manage the situation and roll out vaccines that reach their populations, particularly those that are vulnerable and rural. Opening up means exposure with little resources to mitigate a new outbreak, like we are seeing now with the new variant. It’s a tough situation. Our advice to our guests is to start thinking about South America on a country-by-country basis, rather than as an entire region for travel (much like Europe v. France). Trips focused on one country (that is open) will be the future for the medium term. We also need to find ways to support communities that don’t require travel necessarily—which can be through supporting local designers, wineries, etc. 

Underrated location, overrated location, personal favorite:

So many destinations to be discovered in South America! The southern circuit of Peru, from Lake Titicaca to Arequipa, is magical. Lake Titicaca is still very untouched and this sparkling sapphire lake is home to the Andean Aymara communities that have not changed in centuries with their agrarian and weaving traditions. There are even islands within the lake that you can only arrive by boat to visit with the weaving elders and their local culture (they barely speak Spanish). It feels culturally pristine. Driving overland to Arequipa, or taking the Belmond Sleeper train, is an odyssey across the altiplano with wide-open expanses roamed by wild vicunas and punctuated by towering volcanoes. Arequipa is a handsome, whitewashed city renowned in Peru for its food culture and considered one of the cradles of Peruvian (spicy) cuisine. The picanterias, homey joints, are ground zero to savor these dishes that are so revered throughout the country. There’s also (finally!) a great new Relais & Chateaux project to base there.

Personally, I am not a big fan of crowded touristy spots like Bariloche; I much prefer the Chiloe archipelago and Carretera Austral in Chile, which is untouched northern Patagonia and a very unique island culture that is reminiscent of the British Isles with its rain, rainbows, maritime culture, and myths. Our family is obsessed with Jose Ignacio and the “Uruguayan Riviera.” It is about 35 minutes east of Punta del Este on the coast and is this chic little fishing village with great beaches, food, wine, aesthetics, and the campo (countryside) nearby, with its gaucho culture. We fell in love over a decade ago and started to go every (South American) summer, which is usually in January or February. I will forever daydream about the chilled Albarino and grilled baby chipirones squid at La Huella, a favorite restaurant tucked on the dunes of Playa Brava. Of course, you have to stay at one of the Vik resorts, which are true works of art and very true to Uruguayan hospitality.

How, as a company, do you encourage your clients to be better travelers?

First, we are encouraging people to slow down and go deep into one country. Before the pandemic, there was some tendency to try to squeeze multiple countries and destinations into an itinerary and cover a lot of territory in a short period of time. People often don’t appreciate that South America is a huge continent and distances are considerable, even within a single country. Now, with the uneven government protocols across the region, it’s really necessary to focus on one (open) country as a travel strategy and maximize destinations domestically. 

We will be launching a new membership in the fall called the LC Collection (currently in private beta) to bring small producer fine wines and gourmet ingredients that we visit in South America into our clients’ homes four times per year. We curate, source, import and deliver. The LC Collection was conceived during our endless (six-month) lockdown last year in Chile and ultimately created to solve an ongoing frustration we had observed with our clients for many years. They could never get the wines nor ingredients once home! We also feel, in this time of restricted travel, it’s a way to continue to support the many artisans we love and visit with our guests.

I also felt there had to be a way to extend the actual trip from the time on the ground. Travel is also about the connection to the place before and after a trip. Food & wine tether that experience. Most of the cultures that are so ingrained today (France, Italy and more recently Spain, for example) all got under our skin by bringing those ingredients—the wines and ultimately the culture into our homes. I also am one of those people who always prepares for a trip through books, music, recipes, and, of course, the wine, so I wanted a vehicle to rekindle the romanticism of travel by cultivating a sweet anticipation of the trip and connecting to the memories after. Wine, food, and memories go hand-in-hand.