Viña La Junta

The winery

La Junta springs from a shared memory. Its founders speak of childhood summers at the Los Pocillos estate, in San Clemente, among ramadas (festive open-air stalls), horse races, rodeo and chinchineros (street drummer-dancers), with cousins and uncles everywhere and a cellar of barrels and foudres where they played hide-and-seek. That idea of bringing family and friends together is what the winery puts front and center when it introduces itself. Los Pocillos appears in its story as family memory, not as a place to visit. Its blog names Rodrigo Valenzuela as founding partner, and today La Junta sells in Chile and exports to markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.

Almost all its wines come from the Curicó Valley. The Sauvignon Blanc comes from Zapallar, in the eastern part of the valley, and the reds from the center, in Sagrada Familia, on alluvial terraces of clay, sand and stone beside the Mataquito River. The Pinot Noir is the exception: it grows in the Maule Valley, in an area close to the Andes. The winemaking cellar is on the K-16 road, km 23, in Sagrada Familia; the winery describes it as 2,000 square meters, gravity-flow, with a manual sorting table and some 1,500 French and American barrels. Antonio Vásquez, the winemaker who signs the harvest reports, works with Carménère, Cabernet Franc and Syrah as the basis of the house style, and the website presents Ricardo Pérez Cruz as leader of the winemaking team. The range runs from the Amigo Perro and Santa Lucía lines to Momentos Reserva and Gran Reserva, and ends with Calicata Syrah, Carignan and Escalera, a blend built from the standout barrels of each variety.

La Junta publishes no visits, tours or booking channel. All its blog recounts are receptions for importers in 2019, with a tour of vineyards and cellar and a tasting led by the winemakers, not an offer open to the public. Before heading to Sagrada Familia, write to info@lajuntawines.com or WhatsApp +56 9 3024 2247. The sure way to get to know its wines is the online store, tienda.lajuntawines.com, with shipping throughout Chile and a free members' price club; the same store mentions La Cav among its points of sale. The office is in Las Condes, in Santiago, some 230 kilometers from the winery, and the website does not present it as a wine shop.