Chilean wines partner with online business.

Three Chilean entrepreneurs are a step away from launching the next big website to sell their country’s wine, beer and gourmet products online, thanks to a push from a pair of Start-Up Chile alums from Portugal.

Chileans Pamela Villablanca – the international director at Andes Wines – along with José Miguel Sotomayor and Maximiliano Morales are heading the new company, which will be launched in collaboration with the online store Vendder.com.

The new Andes Wine spin-off represents the type of international, technology-based entrepreneurship that Chile has become famous for in the past few years, earning it the label of “The Silicon Valley of Latin America.”

In this instance, the Chilean entrepreneurial effort is being supported by the two Portuguese entrepreneurs who started Vendder.com: Tiagos Matos and Filipe Conçalves, each with a masters degree in software engineering.

Matos and Conçalves came to Chile last year as part of the pilot project of the now-famous Start-Up Chile program. After working the requisite six months in the capital, they decided to abandon their plans to return to Portugal and relocate permanently to Santiago, where they can continue to work shoulder to shoulder with other entrepreneurs attracted by the Chilean government’s innovative program.

The project with Andes Wine will provide personalized service to online customers looking for some of Chile’s hottest wines, best beers and most delectable gourmet foodstuffs, making use of Vendder.com’s international platform and tri-lingual hosting services in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

“We made up our minds and decided to work with Vendder.com thanks to their vast international experience, as well as the fact that they are well-positioned in Chile, which makes us feel sure that we are working with a leading company in electronic commerce,” said Morales of Andes Wines.

Originally posted at: http://www.thisischile.cl/7196/2/wine-meets-start-up-business-in-the-chilean-capital/News.aspx

AndesWines
andes@andeswines.com

The objective of the venture’s first stage will be to allocate $20 million of private investment dollars to Chilean vineyards with medium-term growth potential, strengthen the vineyards through strategic management over a period of two to five years, and then sell them at a higher value. This process will benefit investors, vineyards and the larger Chilean wine market, growing the prestige of this already-burgeoning industry.

Investment strategy will be headed up by Sebastián Hoppe, investment director of Andes Wines, and Pamela Villablanca, international wine manager of Andes Wines. The company was founded 10 years ago by general manager Max Morales and has since gained a reputation as a significant player in several aspects of the Chilean wine industry.

“We are very excited about our relationship with Andes Wines,” Matt Scoggins, marketing consultant at Pan American Real Estate Group, said. “Timing is everything. With the continued growth of the region, as well as the expanding global market for quality grapes and wine, we believe our clients will be properly positioned to take advantage of this exciting and unique opportunity.”

Andes Wines will offer multiple methods of investment, including “turnkey” investments in existing vineyards and “start-up” investments in vineyards that are just getting off the ground. Investors will be able to put their money into multiple aspects of the vineyards, from the land to the varietal, making the opportunity entirely personalized to each investor’s convenience.

Morales underscored the attention and expertise that Andes Wines will offer to investors. More than just another addition to the client’s portfolio, the company will provide support during all parts of the process.

“This is not a transaction; it’s a partnership,” Morales said.

Scoggins believes this venture will be of special interest to his clients who are looking for an opportunity off the beaten path.

“Chile is an extremely ‘hot’ market right now,” Scoggins said. As an emerging market, Chile’s budding growth is exciting for investors. Scoggins is keen to share that potential with his clients. “We have the ability and desire to market this unique investment opportunity, and marry some of our investors with Andes Wines.”

Scoggins added: “This is truly something special.”

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

Luck was on our side from the very beginning. Jean-Jacques and Séverine Bonnie, who came to Argentina to supervise the harvest, were able to show us the winery just a few days before they returned to France.

The Bonnie family is not new to Argentina. Jean-Jacques’ parents, Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie, went to live in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s as part of Alfred’s work at Coca-Cola and General Motors for the American advertising agency McCann Erickson.

The experience would eventually complement Alfred-Alexandre’s passion for wine, which dates back to his childhood, when he would help his father arrange the wine bottles at their home cellar. But it wasn’t until 1996 that Alfred saw his dream come true with the acquisition of the Château Malartic-Lagravière in Bordeaux, a Grand Cru Classé de Graves.

In 2003, Alfred’s son Jean-Jacques and his wife Séverine started working on Malartic-Lagravière after obtaining their University diploma in wine tasting (Diplôme Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Dégustation, known as DUAD).

Two years later, the family business bought the Château Gazin Rocquencourt and its 28 hectares, located beside Malartic-Lagravière.

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have been in charge of the business from the beginning. They conceived the architecture, the construction works, the philosophy behind the wine making process and everything involving the cellar, and they continue to call the shots in the company. Their son Jean-Jacques runs the technical aspects in the wineries in France and Argentina, and his wife Séverine is in charge of marketing at Vignobles Malartic. Both travel around the world promoting the French and Argentinean terroir. Veronique, the youngest daughter, joined the company in 2008 as the finance manager, while her husband Bruno is in charge of sales.

BONNIE FAMILY ENTERS THE ARGENTINEAN WORLD OF WINE

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have known enologist and consultant Michel Rolland for many years because of his work in Bordeaux. So when Michel proposed that they join the Argentinean endeavour Clos de los Siete, they did it without hesitation. So with DiamAndes, they returned to Argentina after 35 years.

At the time, many French wine families were also joining the group in order to diversify their investments. Today, Clos de los Siete owns 130 hectares in Malbecs, Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons and Voigniers. DiamAndes joined wineries Monteviejo, Flechas de los Andes and Cuvelier de Los Andes, adding to the success achieved by this French investment group.

The DiamAndes cellar is a three-floor gravity-flow winery building designed to store the grapes by after harvesting, while they are awaiting placement in the tanks and later on in the barrel room on the lower floor. Its architecture was planned to optimize the time and tasks of vinification and handle the grapes in the gentlest way possible.

Such innovations made us eager to know more about DiamAndes, particularly their ability to break with the paradigm of Argentinean wines –overdone, over-extracted and rife with a wearing wood presence.

We were able to share our impressions of this “diamond in the rough” with Jean-Jacques and Séverine, at a pleasant barbeque our hosts prepared for us and a group of friends from France after our visit to the estate and cellar.

Why Argentinean Malbecs? “The Argentinean Malbec is having a lot of success in the world, so DiamAndes is arriving at the right time to introduce its wines through differentiation, which is very evident if we compare some of the wines that are in the market. We are betting on successful wines with long presence in the mouth and outstanding finesse and elegance,” said Jean-Jacques.

He added that “thanks to the Uco Valley terroir and the location of the cellar at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level, the grape achieves balance when ripe while maintaining the necessary acidity to keep it fresh. The harvesting dates are set apart to obtain the quality we want and avoid the over-maturation, which is what usually tires the wine, resulting in heavy and overcooked wines. We wanted to do something different.”

Jean-Jacques’ passion for wines is evident when he explains that “our harvesting process is done by hand and we have two selection tables to make sure that grapes are the only thing entering the tanks. We conduct very gentle over-pumps to collect what is already ripe so we can create fresher wines while still respecting the soil.”

Concerning the barrels in use by the cellar, he stated that “depending on the wine, we use 10-12 months for French oak barrels and 24 months for our reserve wines, helping to structure the wine so it doesn’t outdo the fruit, which is what we aim at.”

Regarding the harvesting season, DiamAndes enologist, Facundo Pereira, said to AndesWines.com that the this year’s harvest was “climatologically different to what is normal in Argentina, because of the El Niño effects, heavy rains falling in February and March, which reduced exposure to the sun and slowed down the ripening in general. In particular, our vineyards are healthy and our grapes have achieved good ripeness in a year with lower temperatures than normal, and it is showing similar conditions to the harvest of 2010 where there was good fruit, full-bodied wines and a lot of balance because of a slow and complete ripening.”

DIAMANDES GOES OUT TO CONQUER THE WORLD

The domestic Argentinean market represents 15% of DiamAndes’ sales, while the US and Canada concentrate sales of its varietal and reserve wines. Last year, they also started selling in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Asia and the rest of Latin America, with suppliers in Brazil and Uruguay.

The first vintage for DiamAndes was 2007. The DiamAndes Uco Gran Reserva 2007 went out mostly to the North American and Argentinean markets, a blend of 70% Malbec y 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Uco Valley.

A year ago, DiamAndes started to sell its reserve wines in the North American and Argentinean markets, and this year they will start offering their 100% varietals in Malbec and whites DiamAndes Chardonnay y DiamAndes Viognier. Later on, they will introduce their Malbec/Syrah at entry level, which will be named “Perlita,” as part of their strategy to open up new markets with different offers in varietals.

As the marketing expert, Séverine added that “the challenge is to obtain high quality wines with balanced fruits and elegance. We want to avoid the wood outshining the fruit so people can taste and enjoy its acidity and freshness, because these wines are made to be stored for a long time.”

WHY DIAMANDES?

The name DiamAndes came up during a family trip to the Diamond lagoon in the Cordillera de los Andes. Alfred noticed that in the mornings the Maipo volcano, lying on the border between Argentina and Chile, would reflect in the waters of the lagoon shaped as a diamond. During a barbeque, Alfred associated the words “diamonds” with “Andes,” and thus the brand was born.

In the coming weeks, DiamAndes will launch an exclusive boutique lodging service. Passengers visiting the vineyard will be offered the possibility to stay in three luxurious rooms and live a unique experience. The cellar is very close to the rooms and the offer includes access to the compound, adventure travel, trekking and horse riding, and other activities that are traditional in the area.

Photo Gallery:
http://www.andeswines.com/bodega-diamandes/

VIDEOS:
Sevérine explica en la Bodega DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/diamandes-winery-at-the-cellar-in-argentina/

Grapes Selection at DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/harvest-2011-in-diamandes-winery/

Jean-Jacques Bonnie:
http://www.andeswines.com/jean-jacques-bonnie-from-diamandes/

Sevérine Bonnie at DiamAndes
http://www.andeswines.com/severine-bonnie-from-bodega-diamandes/

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

Luck was on our side from the very beginning. Jean-Jacques y Séverine Bonnie, who had come to Argentina to supervise the harvest, were able to show us the winery just a few days before they returned to France.

The Bonnie family is not new to Argentina. Jean-Jacques’ parents, Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie, went to live in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s as part of Alfred’s work at Coca-Cola and General Motors for the American advertising agency McCann Erickson.

The experience would eventually complement Alfred-Alexandre’s passion for wine, which dates back to his childhood, when he would help his father arrange the wine bottles at their home cellar. But it wasn’t until 1996 that Alfred saw his dream come true with the acquisition of the Château Malartic-Lagravière in Bordeaux, a Grand Cru Classé de Graves.
In 2003, Alfred’s son Jean-Jacques and his wife Séverine started working on Malartic-Lagravière after obtaining their University diploma in wine tasting ability (Diplôme Universitaire d’Aptitude à la Dégustation, known as DUAD).

Two years later, the family business bought the Château Gazin Rocquencourt and its 28 hectares located besides Malartic-Lagravière.

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have been in charge of the business from the beginning and they continue to call the shots in the company (they conceived the architecture, the construction works, the philosophy behind the wine making process and everything involving the cellar). Their son Jean-Jacques runs the technical aspects in the wineries in France and Argentina, and his wife Séverine is in charge of marketing at Vignobles Malartic. Both travel around the world promoting the French and Argentinean terroir. All the while Veronique, the youngest daughter, joined the company in 2008 becoming the finance manager, while her husband Bruno is in charge of sales.

BONNIE FAMILY ENTERS THE ARGENTINEAN WORLD OF WINE

Alfred-Alexandre and Michèle Bonnie have known enologist and consultant Michel Rolland for many years because of his work in Bordeaux. So when Michel proposed to them to join the Argentinean endeavour Clos de los Siete group, they did it without a doubt. So with DiamAndes, they returned to Argentina after 35 years.

At the time, many French wine families were also joining the scheme in order to diversify their investments. Today, Clos de los Siete owns 130 hectares in Malbecs, Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons and Voigniers. DiamAndes joined therefore wineries Monteviejo, Flechas de los Andes and Cuvelier de Los Andes, adding to the success achieved by this French investment group.

The DiamAndes cellar is a three floors gravity flow-winery building designed to store the grapes by after they have been harvested, to be later placed in the tanks and later on in the barrel room on the lower floor. Its architecture was planned to optimize the time and tasks of vinification and handle the grapes in the gentlest way possible.

Such innovations made us eager to know more about DiamAndes, particularly their ability to break with the paradigm of Argentinean wines –overdone, over-extracted and have a wearing wood presence.

We were able to share our impressions of this “diamond in the rough” with Jean-Jacques and Séverine, at a pleasant barbeque our hosts prepared for us and a group of friends from France after our visit to the estate and cellar.
Why Argentinean Malbecs? “The Argentinean Malbec is having a lot of success in the world so DiamAndes is arriving at the right time to introduce its wines through differentiation, very evident if we compare some of the wines that are in the market. We are betting on successful wines with long presence in the mouth and of outstanding finesse and elegance”, said Jean-Jacques.

He added that “thanks to the Uco Valley terroir and the location of the cellar at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level, the grape achieves balance when ripe while keeping the necessary acidity to keep it fresh. The harvesting dates are set apart to obtain the quality we want and avoid the over-maturity which is what usually tires the wine, resulting in heavy and overcooked wines. We wanted to do something different”.

Jean-Jacques passion for wines is evident when he explains that “our harvesting process is hand-made and we have two selection tables to make sure that grapes are the only thing entering the tanks. We conduct very gentle over-pumps to collect what is already ripe so to achieve fresher wines while respecting the soil”.

As of the barrels in use by the cellar, he stated that “depending on the wine, we use 10-12 months French oak barrels and 24 months for our reserve wines, helping to structure the wine so it doesn’t outdo the fruit, which is what we aim at”.

Regarding the harvesting season, DiamAndes enologist, Facundo Pereira, said to AndesWines.com that the this year’s harvest was “climatologically different to what is normal in Argentina, because of the El Niño effects, heavy rains falling in February and March which reduced exposure to the Sun and slowed down the ripening in general. In particular, our vineyards are healthy and our grapes have achieved good ripeness in a year with lower temperatures than normal, and it is showing similar conditions to the harvest of 2010 where there was good fruit, full-bodies wines and a lot of balance because of a slow and complete ripening”.

DIAMANDES GOES OUT TO CONQUER THE WORLD

The domestic Argentinean market represents 15% of sales to DiamAndes, while the US and Canada concentrate sales of its varietal and reserve wines. They also started selling in Switzerland, United Kingdom, Latin America and Asia last year, with suppliers in Brazil and Uruguay.

2007 was the first vintage for DiamAndes. The DiamAndes Uco Gran Reserva 2007 went out mostly to the North American and Argentinean markets, a blend of 70% Malbec y 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Uco Valley.

A year ago DiamAndes started to sell its reserve wines in the North American and Argentinean markets, and this year they will start offering their 100% varietals in Malbec and whites DiamAndes Chardonnay y DiamAndes Viognier. Later on they will introduce their Malbec/Syrah at entry level, which will be named “Perlita,” as part of their strategy to open up new markets with different offers in varietals.

As the marketing expert, Séverine added that “the challenge is to obtain high quality wines with balanced fruits and elegance. We want to avoid the wood outshining the fruit so people can taste and enjoy its acidity and freshness, because these wines are made to be stored for a long time”.

WHY DIAMANDES?

The name DiamAndes came up during a family trip to the Diamond lagoon in the Cordillera de los Andes. Alfred noticed that in the mornings the Maipo volcano, lying on the border between Argentina and Chile, would reflect in the waters of the lagoon shaped as a diamond. During a barbeque, Alfred associated the words “diamonds” with “Andes”, and thus the brand was born.

In the next weeks DiamAndes will launch an exclusive boutique lodging service. Passengers visiting the vineyard will be offered the possibility to stay in three luxurious rooms and live a unique experience. The cellar is very close to the rooms and the offer includes access to the compound, adventure travel, trekking and horse riding, and other activities that are traditional in the area.

GALERIA DE FOTOGRAFIAS:
http://www.andeswines.com/bodega-diamandes/

VIDEOS:
Sevérine explica en la Bodega DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/diamandes-winery-at-the-cellar-in-argentina/

Mesa de selección de uvas en DiamAndes: http://www.andeswines.com/harvest-2011-in-diamandes-winery/

Jean-Jacques Bonnie:
http://www.andeswines.com/jean-jacques-bonnie-from-diamandes/

Sevérine Bonnie en DiamAndes
http://www.andeswines.com/severine-bonnie-from-bodega-diamandes/

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: andeswines

andes@andeswines.com
twitter: andeswines

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The key to this new trend is finding a unique agro climatic area with complex soils that allow efficient grape growing depending on the chosen wine variety to grow, reports AndesWines.com

This search for new frontiers already has a worthy sprout, the Carignan in Maule Valley where you can find 100 years old vines that are producing premium wines that are conquering wine critic´s and importers heart by the singularity and uniqueness of the wines. Together with the country’s signature wine, the famed Carmenere, are positioning the Chilean brand in the Premium wines market.

WORD IN THE STREET

These vineyards and wines are already getting international attention. That is why 2010 will be remembered as the year when most wine experts and critics visited Chile, many of them invited by Wines of Chile but also by local wineries, to attend the launch of new cellars and new brands.

Most visits considered trips to these extreme wine regions– Elqui, Limarí and Aconcagua in the north, Leyda in the coast and Bío Bío in the South- to show the efforts by Chilean wineries to produce much fresher wines with less alcohol content and a unique typicity.

Two of these key visits were Alder Yarrow from Vinography.com, one of the most influential wine blogger in the US and journalist Elin Mccoy from Bloomberg, who were surprised by the amount of Chilean winemakers and wineries willing to innovate in new terroirs and grapes.

A whole new chapter in the evolution of Chile´s wine industry started few years ago based on the old vines of “Pais” variety brought by Spanish when they started the colonization.

Right now, thousands of hectares in Maule and lately Itata Valley over 100 years old are being scanned by winemakers to produce a local and unique wine that is seducing wine critics like Tim Atkin MW who have said recently that is something Chile should develop right now to recover part of the wine roots and history of the country.

This fact is supported also by the Wine Book recently written by the historians Armando Cartes and Fernando Arriagada under an AndesWines wine project called “Viñas del Itata, una historia de cinco siglos” “Vineyards of the Itata, a story of five centuries” where was established the traditional winemaking story of Chile with more than 500 years of history.

Renowned British wine writers Jamie Goode, Peter Richards, Chris Losh, David Williams and Emma Wellings, recently witnessed in situ this new trend in wine making and are already writing impression in their respective wine blogs, columns and editorials.

Just back this week in the UK, Jamie Goode had great comments about his last Chilean visit. He was especially impressed with the size of these new vineyards–60 hectares in average, something difficult to find in other wine countries, a good example of how these winemakers are taking their chances in their search for innovation.

He described as “serious” and “exciting” the Syrah, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc he got to enjoy, and underlined the fact that many of these winemakers have overseas experience and that the aim is for wines with definition and freshness, shunning over-ripeness.

Goode also had a word of advice for some of these newcomers: many are growing Pinot Noir when they would be better off with Syrah. “What Chile needs is to show the world that it can produce world class Pinot Noir and cool-climate Syrah. I think it can. I’m very excited by some of the wines I tried: they may be a work in progress, from young vines, but I’m going to buy a few of them. I’ll tell you which ones later”, he said in his wine blog.

Finally, the wine writer Tim Atkin MW just visited Chile and definitely the Chilean wine industry will be expecting his comments and suggestions in the next couple of weeks.

Some of these projects have renowned winemakers and wine consultants behind them, reports Andes Wines. That is why is to be expected that many leave the experimental state and become round businesses thanks to the growing interest in the international markets for new types of wine, trend being led by Chile thanks to its climate and soil diversity.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
twitter: andeswines

Industry actors such as sommeliers, winemakers, grape growers, wine amateurs, wine dealers, importers, wine writers, specialized journalists and retailers, have set up accounts in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, but without having a clear idea on how these tools can help them either communicate their passion for wine or promote the products they sell. The aim is simple: to be there because everybody else is!

Most of the time, it is journalists or PR officers who manage a winery´s social network sites. Some other times, it’s the chief enologist or even the owner of the winery who uploads the information.

According to data compiled by AndesWines.com, most of these “community managers” do not handle confidential information on the vineyard they work at, therefore limiting themselves to just answer general queries and give basic information on the products.

Some wineries have been successful in the use of social networks and transcended frontiers with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, attracting a variety of new wine buyers. Therefore, the responsibility in managing these accounts have been given to professional communication agencies, a move that has encountered many challenges. Usually the person in charge of transmitting the information at those agencies has little knowledge of the dynamics of the wine business, has never been to the vineyard itself, or simply doesn’t know anything about wine, as AndesWines.com points out.

Keeping up the information flow is a process tiring by itself, and it has left many people behind. But there are those who are still standing; their persistence has open up the doors to new buyers and followers of a specific winery.

That being said, we must understand that social networks are a great alternative in keeping in touch with new and old clients and fans, in positioning the products and generate brand recognition, but is very difficult to measure how many of them actually buy the products because of this interaction. Nonetheless, it is a good way to receive feedback and suggestions to improve the message and learn what the consumers want, adds AndesWines.com

The flexibility that social networks provide has allowed the surge of a series of “spin offs” such as the theme groups in Twitter and Facebook about wine. A good example are the “winetuiteros”, a group of 15 professionals or more, -from journalists to wine growers- that exchange ideas and critiques about wine through Twitter, meeting once a month in different restaurants in Santiago, Chile, to share impressions on different brands, bringing the bottles themselves in each occasion.

As wine marketing experts, at Andes Wines understood the need to incorporate these tools into a business strategy, so they offered a social network management service based in their expertise in wines and wine tourism. It seeks to generate different digital marketing approaches and alternative ways to communicate with users, both in English and in Spanish, depending on the market the company is aiming at.

Translation by Marta Lillo Bustos
AndesWines
andes@andeswines.com
twitter: andeswines

Topics like the rescue of the miners, the change of image of Chile like a modern and effective country are helping to raise the orders of wines near 25 % in several countries, and in most of the cases, wineries are mantaining or increasing the prices due to new wine categories of better quality and exclusive productions. One of the decisions is to raise the prices of export – for several years the vineyards and wine associations have criticized that the Chilean wines have very low prices for his quality – and today it is probably the perfect point of inflexion to change it and to correct it towards an upward path, as says AndesWines.

This can be achieved by creating wines with character, terroir and unique personality for example from extreme wine regions like Bio Bio, Itata, Leyda, Elqui or Limari valleys, where there has been verified that wines are achieved with less alcoholic degree, unique personality, flavors and own aromas of these new productive areas of the country.

This means to select grapes of certain sectors of the vineyard and if they add a wine marketing work from the soil and up to label, it is possible to generate the interest on the international market.

In the meantime, for some other wineries they must focus on the domestic market to overcome the lower dollar rate. Inside the country the competition is furious with a great diversity of brands and qualities of wines. On this way, they can compensate the losses for the type of change; focusing in the area of restaurants and small shops being a real option for small and medium size wineries.

An effective strategy to improve the sales of wines on the domestic market is by the organization of wine events and actions where the consumer could taste new brands and types of wines.

An example is what Atton Hotel in Santiago is doing with the wine campaign called “Drink a glass of wine with us” thanks to an exclusive dispenser of 24 wines (red and whites) of new and traditional brands like Anakena, Lagar de Bezan, Gracia, Casa Marin, Viu Manent and Casanueva. In this case, the consumer will be able to taste wines by choosing with a card preloaded with money.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com