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SANTIAGO, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Wine is so integral to Chile's economy, industry and culture that it takes three days to celebrate National Wine Day.
With still two days to go before the Sept. 4 date, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Friday launched the festivities, presiding over an outdoor food and wine tasting outside the government palace which was attended by some 400 guests.
"Wine is development, but it is also a part of our identity," Bachelet told those gathered at Santiago's Constitution Plaza to celebrate a key national industry that employs more than 100,000 people across the country.
"Chilean wines have more than 500 years of history, ever since this land has generated deep ties with the grapevine," said Bachelet, adding wine-making is "industrial and commercial, but above all (related to) cuisine, culture and heritage."
Chile is the world's fourth leading wine exporter, generating some 1.523 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 from bottled wine exports.
In the past 20 years, national production has boomed, going from 291 million liters in 1995 to 1.114 billion liters this year, 70 percent of which is exported, said the president.
Friday's event, jointly organized by the ministries of the economy, agriculture and culture, featured dishes made with wine, including smoked pork in wine and fish in a coriander-wine sauce.
As part of Sunday's festivities, organizers in the town of Nunoa hope to set a new world record by recruiting some 2,000 wine lovers to take part in the "longest toast relay". The city of Anadia, Portugal last broke the record with 1,233 participants in 2013.
Deputy Economy Minister Natalia Piergentili said the government decided this year to highlight the link between tourism, gastronomy and wine-making.
Some 14 percent of foreigners who travel to Chile from Germany, Canada, Spain, France, Britain and the United States "do so motivated by the national wines, to visit the different vineyards and regions that produce them, and that is something we must strengthen," said Piergentili.
Chile's wine tours "have a lot to offer national and international tourists," she added.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Claudio Ternicier highlighted the growth in wine exports, especially to China and other Asian countries, helping to drive development and job creation in various parts of the country.
Chilean wine exports to China doubled from 2012 to 2015, reaching 165 million dollars, according to figures from Chile's Central Bank, and now rank as the fourth-most popular wine among Chinese consumers, only behind French, Spanish and Australian varieties.
