VIÑA LA ROSA

Viña La Rosa is one of the oldest wineries in Chile, with continuous winegrowing history since 1824. The estate was originally purchased from Manuel Blanco Encalada, Chile’s first president, and it remains a family winery — the Ossa family, now in its seventh generation under president Ismael Ossa Prieto, with Daniel Eyzaguirre as general manager. Home is Peumo, in the Cachapoal Valley: the place for Carmenère in Chile.

The wines are made by Cynthia Ortiz, an agronomist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with a WSET Level 3 Award in Wines, who came to La Rosa in 2011 after harvests in Chile and abroad. Her approach is deliberately unfashionable: honest wines with identity, made to be enjoyed rather than decoded.

“The hard part isn’t making a good wine — there are thousands of good wines. The hard part is making a wine with its own identity, one that actually connects its place with the person drinking it.” — Cynthia Ortiz