History
Our Vineyard
Viña El Principal was founded in 1993 by partners Jorge Fontaine Aldunate, owner of Hacienda El Principal, and Jean Paul Valette, a French winemaker and former owner of the famous Premier Grand Cru Classé Château Pavie in Saint-Émilion.
Their main objective was to produce a line of the highest quality wines that would reflect both the spirit and typicity of the Chilean terroir, as well as the Valette family's tradition and experience in crafting fine wines. The terroir of El Principal, located at the foot of the Andes Mountains in the Maipo Andes Valley (DO Maipo Andes), was the perfect place for their project; its unique combination of climate, soils, and altitude allowed them to produce wines with character, a sense of origin, and extraordinary quality.
The partners selected 54 hectares of the property to plant the Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere varieties. Six years later, the first vintage of “El Principal” (1999), the winery's iconic blend, was successfully launched on the market, gaining international recognition as one of Chile's Ultra Premium wines and confirming Chile's potential as a designation of origin for luxury wines.
In 2005, German businessman and shipowner Jochen Döhle bought the entire vineyard and then partnered with the renowned Chilean Said Handal family, who acquired 50 percent of its ownership in 2013.
At the end of 2018, the Said Handal family decided to acquire all of the operations and thus implement a growth plan that will allow the vineyard to reach a new stage of viticultural, oenological and commercial development, consolidating the excellent work in the production and sale of wines carried out in partnership with Döhle.
Andelmo
The Main
Our vineyard takes its name from the Picunche chief Andetelmo, "The Chief," lord of the lands that today encompass our terroir, at the foot of the Andes Mountains in the Maipo Valley. His visionary and peaceful nature earned him the respect of the Spanish conquistadors, giving rise to a history of openness and exchange that endures to this day. Today, the spirit of Andetelmo lives on in our wines, which express all the nobility and quality of a unique terroir.
