Viña VIK | Millahue Valley
In 2004 Alexander Vik, a billionaire Norwegian entrepreneur had a dream - to create a world-class vineyard that would produce the best wine in South America and rank among the best in the world. In his quest Vik assembled an expert team of oenologists, climatologists, geologists, viticulturists and agronomists to find the ideal site in South America to produce his dream wine. The team was headed by Patrick Valette, a Chilean by birth but with a French father and whose family owned Château Pavie in Saint Emilion. Valette had extensive experince as a winery owner, viticulturist, winemaker and consulting enologist in France, California, Chile and Ribera del Duero.
After a two year search the team settled upon a location that provided the optimal climatic conditions for grape growing. It was nearly 11,000-acres of virgin wine territory in the fortuitously named Millahue Valley, or ‘Place of God’ as named by the indigenous people…..VIK was born.
The land was carefully mapped and the best plots were selected for vine planting. For each plot they mapped the rootstocks, then the grape varieties, then the clones of each variety. The varieties selected for planting included Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Syrah.
To date there are some 900 acres of vines planted but only about 20 per cent of grape production makes it into the final VIK blend with a large portion of fruit being sold onto other wineries. The estate presently produces three wines from the 900 acres of vines presently planted. Milla Cala is the entry level wine, La Piu Belle is made from parcels of VIK that don’t make the final VIK blend; this comes in a bottle with a distinctive surrealist label created by Gonzalo Cinefuegos.
And then there is VIK, the realisation of one man’s dream, the result of ten years of extensive searching, planning and precise execution by the team he chose to accomplish the task. In only a handful of vintages VIK has certainly staked a claim for becoming South America’s number one wine.
Discover more at the Viña Vik Website