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Chile’s Concha y Toro: Successfully Selling ‘New World’ Wine Globally
Background Note
In 1883, Don brought in grapevines from the famed Bordeaux region in France to cultivate them in his vineyard – ‘Vina Concha y Toro’ (Concha) at Pirque in the Maipo Valley, Chile. He recruited distinguished French enologist Monsieur Labouchere to develop wines from the grapes in the vineyard. In 1892, after the death of Don, his son Juan Enrique Concha Subercaseaux made Concha a limited company and assumed the position of General Manager. In 1933, the strong financial position of the company prompted it to float its shares on the Santiago Stock Exchange . That same year, the company began exporting its wines to Holland. |
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In 1966, Concha launched ‘Casillero del Diablo’ (The Devil’s Cellar), a wine made from selected Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and aged for almost two years. The wine’s name capitalized on a rumor previously spread by Don to keep thieves away – that the Devil himself resided in a special cellar that contained the best wines of Concha. The ‘Casillero del Diablo’ wine was said to be from that particular cellar and was marketed with an icon of the devil on the bottle. ........
