Chief Winemaker

José Ignacio Cancino (1965) was born in Santa Cruz, the heart of Chile‘s wine region. Unable to escape the call of the land, after studying at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he became an agricultural engineer and oenologist.

In 1990 he began his career as a viticulturist at Viña Portal del Alto, owned by the renowned oenologist Alejandro Hernández - also the first Chilean to hold a seat at the board of the OIV (Office International de la Vigne et du Vin).

Three years later, José Ignacio Cancino moved on to take up the post of agricultural manager of an exciting new wine venture, Viña Haras de Pirque, located in the Maipo Valley. Here he was responsible for the design of the vineyards, the selection and planting of grape varieties and other important aspects of the vineyard development.

Since 1996 under José Ignacio‘s wine management, Viña La Rosa has collected international accolades Presently, José Ignacio as Chief Winemaker oversees the work of a team of 70 people. He was recently listed among the "Chilean young winemakers dream team" by Chile‘s largest circulation newspaper, El Mercurio.

On a personal level, he loves skiing and spending time with his four children, as well as devoting some of his free time to photography and to classical music.

Gonzalo Cárcamo

Winemaker - Viña La Rosa

Gonzalo Cárcamo (1971) was born in Santiago, Chile‘s capital city. As a student, one of his passions was music and in fact at one point in his life, he thought about becoming a musician. However instead of dedicating himself to the piano, he chose winemaking. For him it is also the perfect combination between art and science, he comments "You use all your senses in creating a wine, and what you see as the perfection achieved thereafter is, perhaps, the most important reward on a personal level. I very much enjoy my work."

Gonzalo‘s career began in 1996 at Viña Santa Carolina, where he worked as assistant winemaker. He then left this company to pursue a research project at the University of Chile, where he had studied previously. From there, he went to work in 1998 for Viña La Rosa, whom he has been with ever since.

During Gonzalo’s time at Viña La Rosa, he has travelled to the US to experience the vintage there. In 2002, he worked at Robert Mondavi‘s winery during the harvest of the red wines. As a result of this, one of the Viña La Rosa projects is working on is one that seeks to produce wines tailored especially for the US market and he is the winemaker in charge of this specific.

During his free time, Gonzalo enjoys playing tennis and he also likes the traditional weekend lunches with his extended family, during which he indulges in what he describes as "very Chilean lengthy conversations over a good bottle of wine."