1883
Don Melchor Concha y Toro, Marqués de Casa Concha in the Spanish Court, decided to exploit the winemaking potential of the Maipo Valley just as the industry in Chile became fashionable. Don Melchor Concha y Toro brought in French vine stock from Bordeaux and contracted eminent French enologist, Monsieur de Labouchere, to prepare his first wines. Viña Concha y Toro rose from this entrepreneurial action at a time of keen interest in national wine production.
1891
A legend is born: Don Melchor spread rumor among winery workers that the devil frequented the cellar holding his best wines. It kept his finest reserves safe from meddlers and also, unwittingly, presented the name for one of the most celebrated wines of Concha y Toro and Chile: Casillero del Diablo.
1921
Viña Concha y Toro advanced from a family business to an open stock company geared at preparing agricultural land for the production of wine. The founders’ focus on product quality from the outset brought the company immediate acclaim.
1933
While the world still reeled from the 1929 crash, the financial position of Concha y Toro was strong enough for it to get its first stock listing on the Santiago Stock Exchange. Successful sales decisions enabled the company to break into new markets, and while investors backed the company, it began trading with Europe shipping its first consignment to Rotterdam.
1957
Midway through the twentieth century, Concha y Toro moved into a second phase of business. Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle joining the Board, the company invested heavily in new vineyards and restructured its management to handle the demands of changing markets.
1971
Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle became Chairman of Concha y Toro at a time of political and social upheaval in Chile. Despite the adverse business climate, Eduardo succeeded in expanding the company, developing new products and reinforced its quality-oriented policy.
1985
Incorporating leading-edge technologies in all production processes accelerated company modernization. At this point, the winery began importing French oak casks for aging its fine wines.
1987
Marked the release of the first vintage of Don Melchor, a wine exclusively of the Puente Alto vineyard and fruit of Concha y Toro’s most ambitious winemaking project to that point. The winery sought a world-class wine to compete in the premium class and attained a flagship product that elevated Chile, in the minds of consumers around the world, to a country capable of producing high quality wines.
1993
The need to diversify led Concha y Toro to form Cono Sur, a fully export-oriented winery. Its objective of being among the most innovative of New World producers has catapulted this emergent winery to fourth place in the export ranking of Chilean producers selling to the UK after just seven years of business.
1994
Six years before the close of the century, Concha y Toro chalked up another first on becoming the world’s first winery to get a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The US$ 53 million placement enabled the company to undertake a plan of expansion that included updating technology, the acquisition of vineyards and barrels and the development of new lines of wines.
1996
The potential of the Argentine region of Mendoza for wine production motivated the founding of Bodegas y Viñedos Trivento. Concha y Toro’s know-how in the production of fine wines had the new winery rapidly climbing the ranking of Argentine wine exporters.
1997
Don Eduardo Guilisasti Tagle and Baronne Philippine de Rothschild, president of prestigious French winery Baron Philippe de Rothschild, endorsed a joint venture with the aim of producing a wine to the standards of the French Grand Cru Classé, starting what is undoubtedly the most ambitious project in the history of the Chilean wine industry. The venture marked the birth of Viña Almaviva.
1998
The year of the world launch of the first vintage, 1996, of Almaviva, the wine setting out a new category in Chile, Primer Orden, that adheres stringently to the winemaking regulations set out for the French Grand Cru Classé estates.
1999
To improve the company’s speed of response to consumer and other client requests, it installed the world-class enterprise resource planning software SAP that puts all of Concha y Toro’s divisions on-line. The system has improved efficiency, stock control, planning and management.
1999
The year Concha y Toro received the greatest accolades in its history:
A survey answered by almost 18 thousands readers of the prestigious trade journal Wine Spectator found Concha y Toro to be the most important winery in Chile and Argentina.
The top 35 enologists in Chile considered Concha y Toro the Best winery of the decade for its consistent quality, as published in the Chilean Wine Guide.
The Chilean Wine Guide distinguished Don Melchor as Best Cabernet Sauvignon of the Decade and TRIO as the Best Merlot of the Decade.
2000
At an unparalleled event for the Chilean wine industry, Viña Concha y Toro organized its First International Distributor Summit. Attended by the winery’s top 60 exclusive global agents, its aim was for the technical seminars to provide distributors new information and better tools when marketing Concha y Toro’s wines abroad.
2000
A seven year project searching out the best vineyards in the Casablanca, Maipo and Maule valleys under the eagle eye of winemaker Ignacio Recabarren, concluded with Concha y Toro producing TERRUNYO, a four-grape-variety range of premium wines that reveal accomplished winemaking and the demands made on vineyard management.
2001
At the wine industry's top trade fair, Vinexpo, Concha y Toro was invited to join the Club des Marques. The Chilean winery is the first and only Latin American member of this prestigious association that groups the world's leading wine sector brands.
Visit the Concha y Toro website.
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