There are many elements that take part in the manufacture of a high quality wine, but certainly one of the most important factors are the people who are behind the process.
ENCIERRA belongs to the Eyzaguirre Echenique family, for long, wine producers of the Colchagua Valley.
The family goal, represented by Maria Ignacia Echenique, Maria Ignacia Eyzaguirre E., and Juan Carlos Eyzaguirre E., is to pose ENCIERRA as a prime oenological project, different, featured by a limited production, thus, optimizing the benefits of its terroir. To do so, the direction of the Company was entrusted the to Maria Ignacia Eyzaguirre Agronomist & oenologist of the Catholic
University of Chile. Furthermore, ENCIERRA counts with the oenological counselling of Didier Debono, Oenologist at Burdeos University France.
The origins of the relationship between the Eyzaguirre – Echenique family and the wine industry, dates from the eighteenth century when, in 1765, Miguel Echenique Tagle and his son Gabriel, planted the first varieties of wine grapes, coming from France, in the Valley of Colchagua.
Later on, in 1947, the founder of the vineyard “Cañetenes de Puquillay”, Fernando Echenique Zegers, convinced of the wine-producing potential of the Colchagua Valley, and provided with an extensive study of these soils, decided to incorporate new technology to the project. He built a winery that allowed a proper manufacturing of the musts that came from the new plantations.
In the year 1978, the Eyzaguirre Echenique family took control of the vineyard Cañetenes of Puquillay, renaming it under the name of “Viña Los Vascos”. Jorge Eyzaguirre Correa and his wife, Maria Ignacia Echenique, the new owners of the vineyard, convinced that the future of the country’s wine industry was on the exportation of these newly bred wines, decided to initiate an aggressivecommercial campaign worldwide and participated in all the most important market places and international tastings. In addition, they incorporated state-of-the-art technology to the cultivating processes, planted new varieties and incremented the soil destined for these plantations.
The result of this modernization process was that Jorge Eyzaguirre and his wife positioned their name, in Chile and at international, as an innovating family and producers of very high quality wines. A direct consequence of this great effort was that, in 1988, they entered into a “joint-venture” with the well known French winery “Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild” (Lafitte).
In 1996, the Eyzaguirre Echenique family decides to sell their participation in Los Vascos. They retained, however, the ownership of part of the vineyards and the original family house. At present, the company owns 180 privileged hectares, mainly planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Carmenere, Syrah and some Petit Verdot.
Convinced that the key to produce high quality wines was a combination of soil and climate, the Eyzaguirre Echenique family takes advantage of their property and presents to the market their new wine ENCIERRA (harvest 2000).
ENCIERRA is a typical product of the location; a wine that collects all the benefits of the terroir the Eyzaguirre Echenique family owns in Colchagua. The objective is, now, that ENCIERRA becomes one of the best wines in Chile.
