In 1996, Bernard Dauré persuaded his friends, Jean Pierre Cayard and Claude Florensa, to create a wine estate with him in Apalta, Chile. The wives of the three families (mothers and daughters) soon fell in love with the land of Apalta in the Colchagua Valley, just a two-hour drive from Santiago. In honor of them, the winery was given the name: Viña las Niñas (wines of the girls). Today, Las Ninãs owns 160 hectares of vineyards, planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Camenère, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Mathias Klotz designed and built the basement. In 2021 Las Ninas is an independent wine company.
In the local native dialect, Apalta means “earthquake”, the land itself is shaped like a small horseshoe-shaped valley. Sheltered to the north, east and west by hills, reaching an altitude of about 600 meters and bathed in the gentle breeze that blows between the Andes mountain range and the South Pacific. The Tinguiririca River marks the end of the valley south of Apalta. This river regulates the temperature and provides the necessary water for irrigation. The soil is partly of sandy clay, but also with a rocky volcanic mixture in other places, with average summer temperatures of around 23°C.
Little by little, Las Niñas has come to better understand the terroir, to ensure the production of top quality grapes, allowing them to produce some of the most remarkable wines in Chile. Today, Apalta is one of the most prestigious and award-winning regions in the world and has been a legally protected designation of origin since 2018.
