The 1996 harvest had already begun and, as usual, everyone in the
grape-growing world was trying to predict the results. Among these
were three great friends who shared the same dreams and the same ideals,
and who had already been playing a part in the wine industry for several
years.
One evening in March 1996 they were sitting out on the terrace at
the house of one of the three, to talk over a drink and relax after
the working day. But this was not just any drink, but rather the dumb
witness to a project that they had been mulling over for some time.
The plan was to put into practice the idea of building a restaurant
in the Casablanca Valley - a different kind of restaurant, aimed at
the tourist boom in the area and highlighting the increasing vine-growing
activity going on at that time in the valley. It would be a restaurant
featuring typical Chilean food, plus an international cuisine, where
all the wineries in the valley would have the opportunity to present
their wines and publicize the booming activity that was developing
in Casablanca.The three friends were imagining the place, the way
in which they would introduce each winery and the dishes to be included
on the menu.
Based on their enological and commercial experience in the wine world,
they even thought of having a small winery on the premises, with steel
tanks and oak casks, where restaurant customers would be able to get
an idea of how wines are made, even if on a small scale. It would
be a "mini-winery", which would let them produce about 30,000
cases that they would offer in the restaurant, and send to a few foreign
markets.
However, the experience of each one of them had involved them in producing
and marketing large volumes. Also, the current bonanza in the wine
industry was not going to last for ever. The project of a winery for
30,000 cases was not therefore big enough to satisfy their demands
in terms of business volume. The restaurant would be a hobby, but
their real cause for pride would be the winery itself.
So, after various evenings of conversation, discussion and giving
shape to the idea, they became convinced that the project they were
defining looked more like a winery, in which wines would be produced,
than a restaurant And they began to put figures on the table, until
they found themselves with a winery with a capacity for 10 million
litres, with the most modern technology available, situated between
Buin and San Fernando - in other words, in the 150 kilometres to the
south of Santiago.
So, in November 1996, building was started on the winery of Viña
Morandé S.A. in Pelequén, 122 kilometres south of Santiago,
and alongside the southern section of the Panamerican Highway. It
was an ideal site for a winery, visible and easily accessible from
the main road, at the natural starting-place of the Wine Route of
the country's VI Region. It was work against the clock, because of
strong pressure from the partners to have a fully-functioning winery
for the 1997 grape-harvest which would begin at the end of February.
Putting up a winery of 10 million litres in only three months was
no easy task, particularly in a year when the "El Niño"
phenomenon turned out in full force. Rain, storms, lightning and floods
were everyday events. But tenacity, confidence and drive prevailed
against this perverse "child(niño)" and in 1997 the
first harvest and wine-making took place in the modern Pelequén
winery, to the astonishment of the industry, which watched as aisles
of gleaming stainless-steel vats emerged from nothing, stores were
built for the casks of French and American Oak and a modern bottling
line was installed with a capacity of 6,000 bottles per hour. All
in all, a jewel created by these visionary, adventurous and pioneering
entrepreneurs out of their "passion for the world of wine".
Against all the forecasts and despite the underhand tricks of the
"Niño", the 1997 harvest, the first from Viña
Morandé S.A., has already borne fruit. Several of the wines
have been awarded prizes in different international competitions:
Vitisterra Merlot 1997 won the Silver Medal at the Catad'Or Contest
at the Hyatt Hotel in 1998; Chardonnay Pionero 1997, Malbec Aventura
1997 and Carignan Aventura 1997, all received a Bronze Medal at the
International Wine Challenge in London in 1998; Nova Terrarum Merlot
1997 won a Bronze Medal in the Selections Mondiales Montreal de Canada
in 1998, and finally, perhaps the most important, the recognition
of the House of Morandé Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 by Decanter
Magazine, in the United Kingdom, which awarded it maximum points and
five stars in the October 1999 publication, after assessing 72 Cabernet
Sauvignon and Merlot from Chile and Argentina.
All a recognition of the short but experienced career of Viña
Morandé S.A., considered by the specialist press, both local
and international, to be the most interesting winery built in Chile
in the past 50 years
