The Guilisasti Brothers, the Alpaca Pen & the Six-Valley Hand

The story of Emiliana begins with the Guilisasti family — one of Chile's most powerful and historic wine dynasties, whose involvement in the management of Concha y Toro stretches back generations. In 1986, brothers Rafael and José Guilisasti founded Emiliana as a separate entity, naming it after Doña Emiliana Subercasseaux de Concha y Toro — the wife of Don Melchor, the founder of Concha y Toro, and the 19th-century matriarch whose name has become synonymous with Chilean wine history. For the first year, Emiliana was still part of Concha y Toro; it separated in 1987 to forge its own path, with its own vineyards, winemakers, and philosophy.

The turning point came in 1998. José Guilisasti — agronomist, visionary, and a man who had managed the family's organic farm — had experienced firsthand the devastating effects of synthetic chemicals in agriculture: red eyes, splitting headaches, respiratory problems. He knew that the health of the workers, the soil, and the environment were inseparable from the quality of the wine. He travelled to California and met with Mike Benziger and Alan York — pioneers of biodynamic viticulture in the United States. Alvaro Espinoza, already a consultant to the project and a man regarded as one of the world's premier authorities on organic and biodynamic wine, had done a sabbatical with Benziger and York and confirmed to José that it was possible to farm with far less intervention. José returned to Chile and convinced the family to let him try organic farming on a few hectares at Los Robles — a 600-hectare property in Colchagua with 100 hectares of vines, isolated from neighbours and surrounded by native forest.

The transition was not easy. The first 35 hectares converted to organic struggled — yields dropped, the vines were stressed, and the family watched nervously as production fell. It took five to six years for the vineyards to recover and find their new equilibrium. But José persisted, guided by Alvaro Espinoza and the biodynamic principles he had learned in California. By 2001, Emiliana was certified organic by IMO Switzerland. By 2003, the first organic wines — Coyam and Novas — were launched. And by 2006, Gê 2003 became the first wine in Chile and Latin America to receive biodynamic certification from Demeter, Germany. What started as a risky experiment on a few hectares had become a revolution — and Emiliana was now the world's largest organic winery, with over 1,256 hectares under vine across six valleys.

Emiliana's winemaking is guided by a philosophy that is both ancient and radical: the belief that the best wine is the one that expresses its terroir with the greatest possible fidelity, and that the only way to achieve that is through organic, biodynamic, and regenerative agriculture. The grapes are hand-harvested from vineyards that have been farmed without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilisers for over two decades. Fermentations are carried out with indigenous yeasts — no commercial inoculation, no enzymes, no artificial nutrients. The winemaking is low-intervention but not zero-intervention: the goal is not to make natural wine in the unfined, unfiltered sense, but to make clean, precise, terroir-driven wine that reflects the health of the vineyard.

The cellar arsenal is diverse and deliberately chosen. Concrete eggs are used for several wines — including the 57 Rocas Carménère, where 70% of the wine is aged in concrete — providing natural temperature regulation, gentle oxygen exchange, and a mineral purity that is impossible to achieve in oak. Foudres — large oak vats — are used for ageing without adding wood flavour, allowing the wine to integrate and evolve while retaining its primary fruit and terroir character. Old barrels — fifth-use French oak and beyond — provide structure and micro-oxygenation without masking the wine with vanilla or toast. The Gê — the icon biodynamic wine — is the maximum expression of Emiliana's philosophy, where the energy of the cosmos, the earth, and the human hand converge in a single bottle. The Coyam — the super-premium blend — is a wine that was born biodynamic, because the Los Robles vineyard was already being farmed biodynamically when the first vintage was made in 2001.

All Emiliana wines are vegan-certified by the Vegan Society — no animal-derived products are used in fining or filtration. The wines are minimally filtered where necessary, but the goal is always to preserve the natural texture and microbial complexity that comes from healthy, organic grapes. The biodynamic calendar guides certain activities: pruning, picking, racking, and bottling are all timed to the phases of the moon and the positions of the constellations — a practice that may seem mystical to outsiders but is rooted in a holistic understanding of the farm as a living organism. The result is a portfolio of wines that range from the everyday Adobe Reserva to the icon Gê, all sharing the same organic foundation, the same respect for the environment, and the same commitment to the people who work the land. This is not industrial winemaking; it is winemaking as stewardship — a belief that the winery's responsibility extends far beyond the bottle.

Emiliana Vineyards is not merely a winery; it is a movement realised — the story of how two brothers, heirs to the Concha y Toro dynasty, separated their estate in 1986 and, twelve years later, began a transformation that would make them the world's largest organic and biodynamic winery, the first in Chile to achieve ROC certification, the first to become B Corp certified, and the first to produce a Demeter-certified biodynamic wine in Latin America. In an era when Chilean wine was defined by industrial scale, chemical agriculture, and the homogenisation of flavour, the Guilisasti family demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from 1,256 hectares of organic vineyards, from compost heaps under alpaca pens, from biodynamic preparations mixed according to the lunar calendar, and from a belief that the health of the soil, the vines, the animals, and the people are inseparable. It is largely thanks to Emiliana that organic viticulture, biodynamic certification, regenerative agriculture, and corporate sustainability now have a place in the Chilean wine conversation. The same valleys that were once farmed with synthetic chemicals have become, through their work, sources of some of the most honest, diverse, and deeply place-driven wines in the world.

The legacy of Emiliana is the legacy of the corporate hand in service of the earth. The Guilisasti family is not a typical Chilean winery founder: they are heirs to Concha y Toro who chose to separate and build something new, who converted 1,256 hectares to organic farming when no one else in Chile was doing so at scale, who employed alpacas, sheep, and geese as vineyard workers, who made 350 tons of compost per year from cow manure, goat manure, and rice hulls, who certified their wines with Demeter, ROC, B Corp, Vegan Society, Fair Trade, and Carbon Neutral, and who believe that the best wine is the one that improves the health of the planet and the dignity of the workers. They do not chase trends. They do not chase scores. They make wines that range from the icon biodynamic Gê to the everyday Adobe Reserva — and they make them all with the same organic foundation, the same biodynamic patience, and the same corporate commitment to sustainability. The B Corp certification is not a marketing badge; it is a philosophical stance that holds the company accountable to the highest standards of social, environmental, and economic impact.

The future of the project is tied to the future of regenerative agriculture, corporate sustainability, and the preservation of Chile's wine valleys as living ecosystems — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most heavily chemicalised vineyards but from the most committed guardians of soil health, biodiversity, and human dignity. As the Gê continues to set the benchmark for biodynamic icon wine in Latin America, as the Coyam proves that a super-premium blend can be both pleasurable and serious, as the 57 Rocas demonstrates that Carménère and Malbec can achieve world-class purity when farmed regeneratively, and as the Maycas del Limarí shows that cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir can rival the best of Burgundy when grown organically on limestone soils, the Guilisasti family remains what they have always intended to be: stewards of the earth — a family who trusted the oak forest of Los Robles, the six valleys of Chile, and the patient hand of organic time, and who built something enduring that spans a nation. The movement is not finished. It is just beginning to vine.