When Aurelio Montes cofounded his eponymous winery in 1987, Chile was a different world from what it is today. Only just returning to a free market, the country was beginning to overcome the financial crises of the Pinochet dictatorship. The wine industry was focused on high-yielding vines and building exports through high-volume, mass-produced wines.
“Douglas had the great inspiration,” says Aurelio of the late Douglas Murray, one of his three fellow cofounders. “He knew that Chile had the potential to make premium wines.” Together, they devised a business plan to focus exclusively on exporting premium wines—and became pioneers in the process. “It felt like we were surfers. We could see this perfect wave, but no one else was on the board ready to surf it.”
Surf it they did. After its first vintage in 1988, Montes quickly built its exports and reputation, taking premium Chilean wines all over the world and opening the door for other wineries back home to do the same. Today Montes is one of Chile’s best-known brands, and its wines are sold in more than 100 countries. In 1996, this dedication to high quality led Aurelio to launch Montes Alpha M, which is widely recognized as one of the first “icon” wines from Chile. It set the bar, and it has since been joined by a fleet of Chilean icon wines, including another four from Aurelio himself.
Of course, none of this marketing would have been successful if the wines hadn’t been any good. This
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
