The Curicó Valley

The Curicó Valley is one of Chile’s oldest wine regions. Located 200km south of Santiago, this privileged viticultural zone, with its cold nights and warm dry days, intense sunlight and long growth season is ideally suited to produce healthy plants and grapes. Here diversity in king, thanks to the cooling influence of the oceanic breezes through the valleys of the coastal mountains, allowing for both red and whites grapes to achieve outstanding fruit aromas and exceptional color concentration.  Here are grown over 30 variety of grapes – more than any other wine region in Chile.

The region’s fertile soils are derived from limestone and volcanic rock from the Andes and have been deposited in the valley over time by the rivers (alluvial) as well as by gravity (colluvial).

Vineyards and Viticulture

Viña Echeverria is located to the eastern part of the Curico Valley, closer to the Andes Mountains. Its location here between the Andes and coastal mountains allows for diurnal temperature variation, which has the effect of producing high acid and high sugar content, as the grapes’ exposure to sunlight increases the ripening qualities, while the sudden drop in temperature at night preserves the balance of natural acids in the grape.

The 65 hectare Viña Echeverría estate is planted with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc.

Working with a model of micro viticulture, each plot, no more than half a hectare, is identified according to its terroir and microclimate, and planted accordingly. Grapes are subject to specific pruning, irrigation, canopy management and harvesting, which result in grapes of optimum quality and flavor. This ‘precision viticulture’ is highly labor-intensive and nature-conscious to produce grapes which are organically grown.

During the harvest, grapes are cut exclusively by hand and carried promptly to our winery in small, stackable cases, protecting them from any external damage until they are safely inside the winery. Just one of the distinct advantages of an estate winery which means that grapes arrive quickly and freshly, maximizing the ultimate quality of the grapes and the wine.

At the heart of the winery at Viña Echeverría is an 80 year old cellar, now a museum, with its original 30,000 liter vats made of native Chilean wood, raulí. The museum also houses many relics from the last century, including a French grape press from the 1930s.

Since the 1990s Viña Echeverría has been using stainless steel tanks to vinify its wine. We have over 100 tanks in varying sizes from 800 liters (for small batches of special wine), to 50,000 liters.

The cellar stores over 1000 barrels, 80% of them French oak, where the majority of the red wines are carefully aged.The winery comprises its own bottling and labeling lines, allowing complete control of the quality of the product from start to finish.

Viña Echeverría adheres to the sustainable policy of using biodegradable products, recycling and reducing its carbon footprint, including a solar panel project to drastically reduce energy consumption. To read more about our Sustainable Certification and policies, see the Sustainable page on our website.

Winemaking

At Viña Echeverría, our winemaking mission has always been to use our long history of family expertise to craft elegant best-in-class wines which are expressive of our beloved landscape.

Our sustainable estate winery is the setting for our traditional and respectful viticulture approach, where mother nature along with precision viticulture allow our organically grown grapes to reach their maximum potential.

Roberto Echeverría Jr has been the Chief Winemaker of Viña Echeverría since 2001, and is supported by a young team of winemakers from both Chile and Europe. In this way, he is able to ensure the consistency in quality year after year that all our customers depend upon, but also bring added innovation and passion to the winemaking team.

Inspired by his French family heritage, Roberto´s signature style produces wines that blend New World innovation with Old World elegance. More European viticultural techniques include timely harvesting to avoid over ripeness and therefore good balance and control of alcohol levels. Focus is on French varietals, barrels and yeasts, as well as longer fermentation and aging in barrels and diverse blending. We are also proud to craft some of Chile’s most complex artisanal wines, such as our Botrytis Sauvignon Blanc and Traditional Method Sparkling wine, both of which have won some of the industry’s best accolades.