The Négociant, the Centenarian Vines & the Itata Hand
Laura Sinisterra is a natural winemaker and négociant working in the Itata Valley of Chile's Ñuble Region. Through her project, Vino Potable, founded in 2023, she produces approximately 6,000 bottles annually from own-rooted, head-trained, dry-farmed centenarian vines in manually worked vineyards — no tractors or machinery. Rather than owning land, Laura sources grapes from small family vineyards passed down over centuries, working to ensure that these families can survive and thrive while respecting the land and the wine. Her mission is clear: elevating Itata, its wines, and its people, all while contributing to the future of its environment. Working with País, Pink Muscat of Alexandria, and Muscat of Alexandria, she crafts wines that are unfiltered, unfined, and made without additives — honest, rustic, and deeply connected to one of Chile's most historic and overlooked wine valleys.
The Négociant, the Family Vineyards & the Itata Hand
Laura Sinisterra is not a typical winery owner. She does not own hectares of vineyard. She does not drive a tractor. She does not inherit land from generations past. Instead, she is a négociant — a winemaker who sources grapes from small family vineyards in the Itata Valley, vineyards that have been passed down over centuries, worked by hand, and dry-farmed without irrigation or chemicals. Her project, Vino Potable, was founded in 2023 with a clear and radical mission: to elevate Itata, its wines, and its people — to give a voice to the families who have preserved these ancient vines and to ensure they can survive and thrive in a world that has largely forgotten them.
The Itata Valley is one of Chile's oldest wine regions — grapes have been grown here since the 16th century, long before the industrial wineries of the Central Valley existed. But Itata has always been a region of smallholders: families with a few hectares of bush-trained País and Muscat, farming without irrigation, without chemicals, and without the machinery that defines modern viticulture. These vineyards are own-rooted, head-trained, and dry-farmed — many of them over a hundred years old — and they are worked entirely by hand, with no tractors or machinery. For Laura, these vineyards are not just a source of grapes; they are a living heritage that must be protected, celebrated, and elevated.
Laura's approach is deeply collaborative. She works with families who have farmed these vines for generations, purchasing their grapes and transforming them into natural wine with zero additives, zero filtration, and zero fining. The goal is not to impose a house style but to let the vineyards speak — to capture the rustic, wild, and deeply authentic character of Itata in every bottle. This is not industrial winemaking; it is community viticulture as a life project — a négociant model built on respect, reciprocity, and the belief that the best wines come from the most committed guardians of the land.
"We work to ensure that families can survive and thrive in working with us all the while respecting the land and in turn the wine. Elevating Itata, its wines, and its people are the goal."
— Laura Sinisterra, Vino Potable
Itata Valley, the Ñuble Hills & the Centenarian Hand
The Itata Valley is located in the Ñuble Region of southern Chile, roughly 400 kilometres south of Santiago. It is one of the country's oldest and most historic wine valleys — a place where viticulture dates back to the Spanish colonial era, when País — the Mission grape — was first planted by missionaries and settlers. For centuries, Itata was the heart of Chilean wine production. But as the industry shifted northward to the Central Valley — to the irrigated, mechanised, industrial vineyards of Maipo, Colchagua, and Curicó — Itata was left behind. It became a forgotten valley, a place of smallholders and subsistence farming, where families continued to tend their ancient vines not for commercial glory but for tradition, for community, and for love of the land.
The vineyards Laura works with are own-rooted, head-trained, and dry-farmed — many of them centenarian, with thick, twisted trunks and deep root systems that have survived earthquakes, droughts, and decades of neglect. Because phylloxera never reached Chile, these vines grow on their own roots, expressing the terroir with a directness that is impossible in grafted vineyards. The soils are granitic and sandy-loam, with excellent drainage and a mineral character that imparts a distinct earthy, stony quality to the wines. The climate is cool and Mediterranean-influenced, with warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters — ideal for slow ripening, high natural acidity, and wines of real freshness and vitality.
The farming is entirely manual. No tractors. No machinery. No irrigation. No pesticides. No chemical fertilisers. The vines are bush-trained — gobelet style — with multiple arms spreading low to the ground, each one pruned by hand, each one harvested by hand. The yields are tiny, but the concentration is extraordinary. For Laura, these vineyards are not a resource to be exploited; they are a partnership to be honoured. By purchasing grapes from these families, she provides them with an income that allows them to continue farming their land in the traditional way — preserving not just the vines, but the knowledge, the culture, and the community that surrounds them.
Itata is one of Chile's oldest wine valleys, with a viticultural history that stretches back to the 16th century. Located in the Ñuble Region, roughly 400 kilometres south of Santiago, it was once the centre of Chilean wine production — a valley of small family farms, each with a few hectares of País and Muscat, dry-farmed and hand-tended. As the wine industry industrialised and moved north to the Central Valley, Itata was left behind — forgotten by the export market, ignored by the tourism industry, and preserved only by the families who refused to abandon their vines. Today, Itata is experiencing a renaissance, driven by natural winemakers who recognise that the valley's ancient, ungrafted, dry-farmed vines are not a relic but a treasure. For Laura Sinisterra, Itata is not just a place to make wine; it is the soul of her project — a valley whose people, traditions, and vineyards deserve to be elevated.
The vineyards Laura works with are among the oldest in Chile — many over a hundred years old, some possibly older. These are not the neat, trellised rows of the modern vineyard; they are bush vines, head-trained, with thick, gnarled trunks and deep root systems that reach metres into the granitic subsoil. Because phylloxera never reached Chile, these vines grow on their own roots, expressing the terroir with a directness and purity that is impossible in grafted vineyards. The old vines produce tiny yields of intensely concentrated grapes — País with its wild strawberry and herbal character, Muscat of Alexandria with its aromatic, grapey intensity. For Laura, these vines are a living heritage, a connection to the past, and a promise for the future. By working with them, she ensures they survive for another century.
Every vineyard Laura sources from is dry-farmed — no irrigation, no artificial water, just the winter rains and the water-retaining capacity of the soils. And every vineyard is worked entirely by hand — no tractors, no machinery, no mechanised harvesting. The vines are pruned by hand, the weeds are cleared by hand, the grapes are picked by hand, and the wine is made by hand. This is viticulture on a human scale: slow, labour-intensive, and deeply connected to the rhythms of the land. The granitic and sandy-loam soils provide excellent drainage and a distinct mineral character, while the cool Mediterranean climate ensures slow ripening and high natural acidity. The result is wine that is rustic, lively, and unmistakably Itata — wine that could not be made anywhere else, by any other hands.
Laura's négociant model is not the industrial grape-buying of the large wineries; it is a deeply personal, collaborative relationship with small family growers. She purchases grapes from vineyards that have been passed down over centuries, working with families who have preserved these ancient vines through decades of economic hardship and industrial neglect. The goal is reciprocity: Laura provides a fair income and a market for the grapes; the families provide the fruit of their labour and the stewardship of their land. Together, they elevate Itata — its wines, its people, and its environment. This is not extraction; it is partnership. It is not commerce; it is community. And it is not just about making wine; it is about ensuring that the traditions, the knowledge, and the vines of Itata survive for generations to come.
The Natural Cellar, the Zero Additive & the Honest Hand
Laura Sinisterra's winemaking philosophy is simple and unwavering: zero additives, zero filtration, zero fining, zero intervention. The grapes arrive at the cellar from small family vineyards — hand-harvested, dry-farmed, and often transported in small crates by the growers themselves. Fermentation is carried out by indigenous yeasts — no commercial inoculation, no temperature control, no enzymes or nutrients. The wines ferment in whatever vessels the cellar provides — old barrels, concrete tanks, or stainless steel — and they ferment at their own pace, dictated by the ambient conditions of the Itata Valley and the natural rhythms of the vintage.
There is no filtration and no fining — clarity is achieved by settling and time alone. There are no additives of any kind — no sulphites, no stabilisers, no colour correctors, no acid adjusters. The wines are bottled as they are: cloudy or clear, bright or muted, depending on the vintage and the grape. This is not a lack of care; it is a deliberate choice to let the wine remain honest, unmanipulated, and deeply connected to its origin. The result is wine that is alive, rustic, and deeply textured — wine that carries the imprint of the centenarian vines, the granitic soils, the manual labour, and the hands of the families who grew the grapes.
Laura's approach is not without risk. Without sulphites, the wines can oxidise or spoil. Without filtration, they can be cloudy or unstable. Without temperature control, fermentations can stall or overheat. But Laura accepts these risks as part of the covenant. The wines that survive are the ones that were meant to be — wines of real character, real place, and real human effort. The portfolio is small and focused: País for the red, Pink Muscat of Alexandria and Muscat of Alexandria for the orange and aromatic whites. Each wine is a collaboration between Laura, the grower, and the vineyard — a triangle of trust that defines everything Vino Potable stands for.
The Zero-Additive Covenant
The guiding principle of Laura's cellar is that the best wine is the one that needs nothing. The absence of additives is not a handicap but a liberation — it removes the temptation to correct, to standardise, to homogenise. Without sulphites, the wine retains its natural microbial complexity and living texture. Without filtration, it keeps the fine particles and yeasts that give it body and depth. Without fining, it preserves its natural colour and aromatic intensity. The indigenous yeasts capture the microbial fingerprint of the Itata Valley — the wild yeasts that live on the skins of centenarian vines, in the air of the cellar, and in the soil of the granitic hills. The manual harvest ensures that only the healthiest, most concentrated grapes enter the fermenter. And the partnership with small family growers means that every bottle carries not just the taste of Itata, but the story of the people who kept its vines alive. The cellar is a quiet, simple space where a négociant lets the centenarian vines and the family hands do the talking.
País, Pink Muscat of Alexandria, Muscat of Alexandria & the Itata Hand
The Vino Potable portfolio is small, focused, and entirely handmade — around 6,000 bottles per year from just three varieties, each one sourced from centenarian, dry-farmed, manually worked family vineyards in the Itata Valley. The País is the soul of the project — Chile's original grape, light and herbal and utterly authentic, from vines that have survived centuries of neglect. The Pink Muscat of Alexandria and Muscat of Alexandria are the aromatic heart — grapes of intoxicating perfume and surprising texture, transformed by Laura's hand into wines of real originality. All are made with indigenous yeasts, zero additives, zero filtration, and zero fining — wines that are rustic, lively, and deeply expressive of their place and their people.
The Négociant's Dream, the Itata Families & the Centenarian Hand
Vino Potable is not merely a winery; it is a manifesto realised — the story of how a young négociant, in just a few years, built a project that gives voice to the centenarian vines and forgotten families of the Itata Valley. In an era when Chilean wine was defined by industrial scale, export volume, and the homogenisation of flavour, Laura Sinisterra demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from 6,000 bottles of País and Muscat, sourced from small family vineyards with own-rooted, head-trained, dry-farmed centenarian vines, fermented with indigenous yeasts, and bottled with zero additives, zero filtration, and zero sulphites. It is largely thanks to projects like Vino Potable that the Itata Valley, the Ñuble Region, and southern Chilean viticulture now have a place in the global natural wine conversation. The same ancient vines that the industrial machine ignored have become, through her work, a source of some of the most rustic, honest, and deeply human wines in the country.
The legacy of Laura Sinisterra is the legacy of the collaborative hand in Chilean viticulture. Laura is not a typical Chilean winery founder: she is a négociant who works with small family growers, who sources grapes from centenarian vines that have been passed down over centuries, who ensures these families can survive and thrive, and who believes that the best wine is the one that elevates both the land and its people. She does not own land. She does not chase volume. She does not chase scores. She makes around 6,000 bottles per year — País for the red, Muscat for the orange — and she makes them with the same respect and reciprocity that defines her relationships with the growers. The zero additives is not a compromise; it is a philosophical stance that allows the wine to remain honest, unmanipulated, and deeply connected to the families who grew the grapes.
The future of the project is tied to the future of natural viticulture and négociant winemaking in the Itata Valley — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most equipped cellars but from the most committed guardians of old vines, family traditions, and community solidarity. As the País continues to set the benchmark for rustic authenticity in Itata, as the Muscat proves that even the most aromatic grape can produce wines of world-class texture and complexity when treated with patience and respect, and as the families of Itata find new markets and new recognition through Laura's work, she remains what she has always intended to be: a négociant who became a champion — a woman who trusted the centenarian vines, the family hands, and the granitic soil of Itata, and who built something enduring in the Ñuble hills. The dream is not finished. It is just beginning to ferment.
"Elevating Itata, its wines, and its people are the goal, all the while contributing to the future of its environment."
— Laura Sinisterra, Vino Potable