The Surf, the Fog & the Second Hand
Charlie Villard is the second-generation winemaker of one of Chile's most pioneering family estates — Villard Fine Wines in the Casablanca Valley. Born into a French-Chilean wine dynasty founded by his father Thierry Villard in 1989, Charlie has spent his life between the vineyard and the surf break. While steering the family's legacy of premium cool-climate wines, he has also forged his own path with JCV — an experimental, minimal-intervention label that produces some of the most exciting natural wines in Chile. From a skin-fermented Ramato Pinot Grigio made without sulphites to native-ferment Grenache and Carignan, Charlie is redefining what Casablanca can be. He works alongside fellow enologist Anamaria Pacheco, tends 28 hectares of north-facing coastal vineyards, and believes that the grape guides the winemaker, not the other way around. When he is not in the cellar, he is at Matanzas or Puertecillo — two of his favourite surf spots on the Chilean coast.
The Frenchman, the Beetle & the Villard Hand
The Villard story begins not in Chile but in Paris, 1972, when Thierry Villard — a young Frenchman who had spent his youth in Switzerland and England — left home at 19 to discover the world. By 20 he was in Australia, working at Orlando Wines and then Morris Wines in Victoria, before becoming Export Manager and creating the first international media campaign for Jacob's Creek. During the 1970s and 80s, the family took holidays to Chile, where Thierry felt an increasingly strong pull. By 1988, convinced that Chile was on a sound economic path and that its wine industry would become the "new discovery" in Europe, he resigned from his Australian career, packed his wife and two sons into a car, and moved to Chile.
In 1989, Thierry founded Villard Fine Wines — Chile's first family-owned premium boutique wine company — in the then-unknown Casablanca Valley. At the time, the valley was virgin territory: almost no growers, no reputation, and no infrastructure. Thierry's vision was to produce premium whites and Pinot Noir — varieties practically non-existent in Chile at the time. He also established a cooperage joint venture with French barrel-maker Nadalié, now run by Charlie's older brother Sébastien. Over three decades, Villard became one of the most awarded producers in the valley, with wines like Tanagra and Arganat earning 95-97 point scores from critics worldwide.
Charlie Villard grew up inside this world — wine was not a career choice but the air he breathed. While his father built the business from nothing, Charlie developed a parallel passion for the ocean. He is as comfortable reading a wave at Matanzas as he is reading the sugar levels in a Pinot Noir vineyard. Today, he runs the family winery alongside his father and brother, but his most personal expression is JCV — the initials of Juan Carlos Villard — a label launched in 2017 that allows him to experiment with natural winemaking, non-traditional varieties, and zero-sulphur cuvées. It is the space where the surfer and the winemaker become one.
"We are mere intermediaries between nature and wine."
— Charlie Villard
Casablanca, the Humboldt Current & the Coastal Hand
The Casablanca Valley lies just 70 kilometres west of Santiago and less than 25 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean — one of Chile's premier cool-climate viticultural regions. The Humboldt Current, running through the cold Pacific waters, creates a dramatic cooling effect: morning fog, low temperatures, and sea breezes that sweep through the valley daily. This maritime influence gives the wines their signature bright acidity and fresh, fruity aromatics — the exact conditions Thierry Villard recognised in 1989 when the valley was still unknown.
The Villard estate sits on a 28-hectare north-facing slope tucked into the northeast corner of the valley, where the winery and cellar door perch at the top of the hill. The vineyards are planted on the foothills of the coastal mountain range, with soils that vary across the property. Some blocks are dry-farmed bush vines (gobelet) — notably the Syrah for Tanagra — while others use vertical shoot positioning and double Guyot pruning for varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The proximity to the ocean is palpable: on clear days you can almost taste the salt in the air, and the cool nights preserve acidity in a way that warmer inland valleys cannot replicate.
For Charlie, Casablanca is not just a wine region — it is a lifestyle ecosystem. The same cold Pacific that cools his vineyards also delivers the swell he chases at Matanzas and Puertecillo. The valley's rhythm is dictated by the fog: it rolls in at dawn, burns off by midday, and returns at dusk. This is the rhythm of the vines, the rhythm of the surf, and the rhythm of Charlie's winemaking calendar. During vendimia — the harvest season — he works 16-hour days from sunup to sundown, tasting grapes in the field, checking seed crunchiness, and deciding the exact moment to pick. Then he surfs.
Casablanca was named Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast in 2005, and for good reason: the combination of coastal fog, granite soils, and the Humboldt Current creates ideal conditions for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Sauvignon Blanc. But Charlie sees something deeper in the valley — a potential for natural wines, skin-contact whites, and non-traditional varieties that the industrial Chilean wine machine has largely ignored. His JCV label is proof that Casablanca can produce wines with the same energy and unpredictability as the ocean that borders it.
The Villard vineyard is a single contiguous property on a north-facing hillside, maximizing sun exposure while retaining the cooling influence of the Pacific. The winery sits at the top of the slope, allowing gravity to assist in grape handling. The estate grows Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Pinot Grigio, Grenache, and Carignan across diverse soil types and exposures. Some of the oldest blocks are bush-trained gobelet Syrah — the source for the legendary Tanagra — while newer plantings experiment with varieties like Grenache and Carignan for the JCV natural line.
Charlie is one of the most public members of the Villard team, frequently appearing at wine events and dinners — when he is not at his two favourite surf spots. Matanzas and Puertecillo are coastal towns south of Casablanca where the Pacific swell creates consistent, powerful waves. For Charlie, surfing is not a distraction from winemaking but a parallel discipline: both require reading natural patterns, patience, timing, and respect for forces larger than yourself. The same humility that keeps him calm in a heavy swell informs his minimal-intervention approach in the cellar.
Charlie's JCV wines are produced with minimal intervention: native yeast fermentation, no fining, no filtration, and often zero added sulphur. The Ramato Pinot Grigio is fermented on skins for a copper-pink hue and textural complexity. The Grenache is fermented in giant French oak vats with indigenous yeasts. The Carignan comes from old vines in the Maule Valley. These are not industrial wines; they are personal expressions of a winemaker who trusts the grape more than the recipe. The result is a portfolio of wines that are alive, slightly unpredictable, and deeply honest.
Native Yeast, the Grape's Voice & the Intermediary Hand
Charlie Villard's winemaking philosophy is deceptively simple: "The grape guides the winemaker, not the other way around." After decades of watching his father craft precise, award-winning premium wines, Charlie chose a different path for his own label — one that prioritises expression over perfection, texture over polish, and honesty over homogeneity. His goal is not to cover up anything but to allow the grape to fully express itself. This is minimal-intervention winemaking with a distinctly Chilean coastal soul: native yeasts, skin contact, no pumps during harvest, and a refusal to fine or filter.
The JCV cellar is a laboratory of experimentation. The Ramato Pinot Grigio is made under the rules established by Friulian natural winemakers — fermented on skins for a copper-rosé colour, with floral and citrus aromatics and a layered, tannic palate. The Grenache is fermented in giant French oak vats with wild yeasts, producing a juicy yet fine wine of real depth. The Carignan is sourced from old vines in the Maule Valley, bringing a different terroir into the JCV family. The Semillon is aromatic and flinty, with pear, apple, and pineapple notes. All JCV wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered, with zero or minimal sulphur — carrying their natural sediment and living character as proof of their authenticity.
At the same time, Charlie remains deeply committed to the Villard Fine Wines legacy. The Tanagra Syrah — the estate's flagship — continues to earn 95-97 point scores from critics, aged in the family's own barrels from their cooperage. The Arganat Chardonnay expresses the mineral, saline character of rifle stone soils. The Le Pinot Noir and Le Chardonnay are benchmarks for the valley. Charlie manages both worlds with the same ease he manages a surfboard: the premium line demands precision and consistency, while the JCV line demands intuition and surrender. Together, they form a complete portrait of a winemaker who respects tradition but refuses to be trapped by it.
Native Yeast & the Intermediary Covenant
The guiding principle of Charlie's cellar is that the winemaker is an intermediary, not a creator. The Casablanca climate provides healthy grapes with vibrant acidity. The native yeast populations on the grape skins drive fermentation without laboratory inoculation. The skin contact on the Ramato extracts colour, tannin, and phenolic complexity naturally. The giant oak vats for Grenache allow for gentle oxygen exchange and temperature regulation. The absence of sulphur preserves the wine's microbial soul. And the unfined, unfiltered bottling keeps the texture, the sediment, and the coastal memory intact. The cellar is not a factory but a workshop — where a surfer-winemaker applies the patience of the ocean to the craft of the vine.
Tanagra, Arganat, Ramato & the JCV Hand
The Villard portfolio spans two distinct but complementary worlds: Villard Fine Wines — the premium, terroir-driven legacy line founded by Thierry — and JCV — Charlie's experimental natural wine label launched in 2017. The Villard line is structured in three tiers: Icon (Tanagra, Arganat), Reserve (Le Chardonnay, Le Pinot Noir, L'Assemblage, Le Syrah), and Expression (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah). The JCV line is a single tier of minimal-intervention, limited-production wines from non-traditional varieties: Semillon, Ramato Pinot Grigio, Carignan, and Grenache. Together, they represent the full spectrum of what Casablanca and beyond can offer — from 97-point icon Syrah to zero-sulphur skin-contact orange wine.
The Second Generation, the Surf & the Natural Hand
Charlie Villard represents a new archetype in Chilean wine: the second-generation winemaker who honours his father's legacy while carving a completely new path. In an era when Chilean wine was defined by industrial scale, corporate consolidation, and homogenous export styles, the Villard family — first Thierry, now Charlie — demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from a fog-covered hillside 35 kilometres from the Pacific, made by a surfer who trusts the grape more than the laboratory. It is largely thanks to them that cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah have a place in the global conversation about Chilean wine. And it is thanks to Charlie's JCV label that natural wine, skin-contact orange wine, and zero-sulphur cuvées are now part of that same conversation.
The legacy of Villard Fine Wines is the legacy of the French-Chilean family hand in South American viticulture. Thierry was not a typical Chilean winery founder: he was a Parisian who drove a Volkswagen Beetle to Afghanistan, worked in Australian wine marketing, and bet everything on an unknown valley near Santiago. Charlie is not a typical second-generation winemaker: he is a surfer who makes natural wine, who works 16-hour days during harvest and then paddles out at Matanzas, who believes that the best winemaking is the winemaking that gets out of the way. Together, father and son have created a model that spans premium precision and punk-rock experimentation — Tanagra and Ramato, Arganat and Grenache, the cooperage and the surfboard.
The future of the project is tied to the future of cool-climate viticulture and natural wine in Chile — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the hottest valleys but from the most committed guardians of coastal fog and granite. As Tanagra continues to set the benchmark for Chilean Syrah on the world stage, as Arganat proves that Chardonnay can be mineral and saline rather than buttery and oaky, and as JCV shows that a skin-contact Pinot Grigio with zero sulphur can be as thought-provoking as any icon wine, Charlie Villard remains what he has always intended to be: a surfer from Casablanca who doesn't make wine to impress critics — he makes wine to express the truth of the grape, the valley, and the ocean. The fog rolls in. The swell rises. The yeast ferments. And Charlie gets out of the way.
"Our job is to make the full expression of what the grape is offering us, not to cover up anything but allow it to fully express itself."
— Charlie Villard