The Casona, the Andes & the Joda Hand
Vino La Joda is the life project of husband-and-wife enologists Jorge Carrancá (Chile) and Daniela Meruvia (Bolivia) — a winery devoted to "vinos libres y felices" (free and happy wines) made at human scale, with minimal intervention, and without filters. Founded in 2016 in the Cajón de San Francisco de Los Andes, in the heart of the Aconcagua Valley, their winery is housed in a 200-year-old colonial house (casona) in San Esteban, where they also run a German-style pastry shop and welcome visitors for intimate tastings and tours. Jorge and Daniela met while working in the industrial wine industry in Santa Cruz, Colchagua — two enologists who fell in love with each other and then with the idea of making wine their own way. Their philosophy is simple: "Mejor ser que parecer" — Better to be than to seem. They harvest by hand in two phases, ferment with indigenous yeasts, and bottle with sediment (borra) proudly on display. Their wines are for young spirits, curious palates, and anyone who believes that wine should be joyful, honest, and a little bit crazy.
The Enologists, the Colchagua Meeting & the Joda Hand
Jorge Carrancá and Daniela Meruvia are both enologists by training — Jorge from Chile, Daniela from Bolivia. They met in Santa Cruz, in the Colchagua Valley, while working in the industrial vitivinicultural industry. For years, they made wine for other people's brands — large-scale, export-oriented, formula-driven wines that paid the bills but never stirred the soul. But something happened between them: a shared restlessness, a mutual desire to make wine that was truer, wilder, and more personal.
In 2016, they took the leap. They left the security of the corporate wine world and moved to the Aconcagua Valley, to a small town called San Esteban nestled in the Cajón de San Francisco de Los Andes — a mountain corridor at the foot of the Andes, where the Aconcagua River flows and the air is thin and bright. They took over a field (Fundo San Francisco) and began building a viticulture that was sustainable and enduring — not just organic in name, but rooted in the care of the surrounding environment. Their son Salvador was born into this world — a child of the casona, the vineyard, and the pastry shop.
The name "La Joda" captures the spirit of the project: in Chilean slang, it means "the fun" or "the joke" — but also something deeper: a refusal to take oneself too seriously, a commitment to pleasure over pretension, and a belief that wine should make you smile. Jorge and Daniela make wine "a escala humana" — at human scale. They do not chase volume. They do not chase scores. They chase happiness — theirs, and yours.
"Mejor ser que parecer."
— Jorge Carrancá & Daniela Meruvia, Vino La Joda
San Esteban, the Aconcagua & the Andean Hand
The Aconcagua Valley is one of Chile's most historically significant wine regions — named after the Aconcagua River, which flows from the highest mountain in the Americas (6,962 metres) to the Pacific Ocean. The valley is known for its hot, dry days and cool Andean nights, creating a dramatic diurnal shift that preserves acidity while allowing grapes to ripen fully. But while most of the valley's fame belongs to large estates like Errázuriz and Seña, Jorge and Daniela have carved out a niche in the mountainous eastern edge, in the Cajón de San Francisco, where the altitude is higher, the soils are rockier, and the viticulture is harder — but the wines are more honest.
Their vineyard sits on clay-sandy soils, very rocky and rich in sand from the decomposition of the surrounding mountains. The soils are deep, allowing the vines to root deeply and access water reserves. Because the region has experienced significant drought in recent years, Jorge and Daniela practice winter irrigation that simulates rainfall — creating a water cushion for the vines before the summer heat — and then irrigate only a couple of times in spring. This is not dry-farming, but it is water-conscious viticulture adapted to a changing climate.
They have also recently planted Malbec at high altitude — around 1,300 metres above sea level — in a cordilleran climate on shallow sandy soils over degrading rock with veins of quartz and lime. They expect this Malbec to be mineral and distinct — a high-altitude expression of a variety usually associated with the plains of Mendoza. The varieties they cultivate include Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Moscatel Rosada, Negra Criolla (País), Malbec, and Garnacha — a deliberately eclectic mix that reflects their refusal to be boxed in by Chilean wine conventions.
San Esteban is a small town in the Aconcagua Valley, nestled in the Cajón de San Francisco at the foot of the Andes. It is not a wine tourism hub like Colchagua or Casablanca; it is a working agricultural community where the pace of life is slower and the connection to the land is deeper. For Jorge and Daniela, San Esteban is not just a location but a way of life — a place where they can raise their son, tend their vines, bake pastries, and welcome visitors into their 200-year-old home. The town is also the centre of their collaborative tourism project, "La Tripleta."
The winery is housed in a colonial house (casona) with more than 200 years of history — a building that has witnessed the entire arc of Chilean wine history, from the colonial era to the industrial boom to the natural wine renaissance. The bodega occupies part of this historic structure, with its thick adobe walls, wooden beams, and cool cellars providing natural temperature regulation. The casona is also home to their German-style pastry shop, where visitors can enjoy sweet pairings after a tour. The building has disability access, and the couple plans to offer tours in sign language — a reflection of their inclusive, community-oriented philosophy.
The Cajón de San Francisco is a mountain corridor where the Aconcagua River cuts through the Andes, creating a dramatic landscape of steep slopes, rocky soils, and intense sunlight. The climate is continental and mountainous — hot days, cold nights, and low humidity. The soils are a mixture of alluvial deposits, clay, and sand, with a high proportion of rock fragments from the Andes. This is not the gentle, coastal terroir of Casablanca or the rolling hills of Colchagua; it is a rugged, demanding landscape that produces wines of concentration and character.
Jorge and Daniela practice sustainable viticulture with a particular focus on water management. The Aconcagua Valley has suffered severe drought in recent years, and the couple has adapted by irrigating in winter to simulate rainfall and build a water cushion in the deep soils, then restricting irrigation to only a couple of times in spring. They work the field to guarantee the care of the environment surrounding their vines — not as a certification strategy, but as a practical necessity. The result is viticulture that is responsive to climate, respectful of resources, and honest about the challenges of farming in a changing world.
Two-Phase Harvest, the Borra & the Happy Hand
Jorge and Daniela's winemaking philosophy is distilled in a single sentence: "Vino libre y feliz, tiene borra y nos gusta" — Free and happy wine, it has sediment and we like it. They are not interested in polishing, filtering, or homogenising. They are interested in truth, joy, and the natural rhythm of fermentation. Every wine is made a escala humana — at human scale — with hands, patience, and a sense of humour.
The harvest is always manual and done in two phases — a practice they apply to their Carmenere and other varieties, picking at different moments of ripeness to achieve complexity and balance. Fermentation is driven by indigenous yeasts; there are no commercial inoculations, no enzymes, no additives. The wines are unfiltered — the sediment (borra) is part of the wine's character, not a defect to be removed. Sulphur is used minimally or not at all, depending on the wine. The result is a portfolio of wines that are alive, slightly wild, and deeply drinkable — from a pale, turbid Pet-Nat that shifts from clean to creamy as you pour, to a Carmenere blend harvested in two passes and fermented with native yeast.
What distinguishes La Joda from many natural wine projects is their integration of wine with hospitality and community. The winery is not a production facility hidden from the public; it is a living space where visitors tour the historic casona, taste the wines, eat German pastries, and learn about the collaborative "La Tripleta" tour. Jorge and Daniela believe that wine is not just a product but an experience — a bridge between the vineyard, the kitchen, and the human table. This is why they won a tourism award from the Corporación Regional de Turismo Región de Valparaíso for their inclusive, community-oriented approach.
Two-Phase Harvest & the Borra Covenant
The guiding principle of Jorge and Daniela's cellar is that the best wine is the one that tells the truth. The two-phase harvest — picking the same vineyard at different moments of ripeness — gives complexity and balance that a single pick cannot achieve. The indigenous yeasts capture the microbial soul of the Aconcagua Valley. The unfiltered bottling keeps the sediment, the texture, and the living yeast in the wine. The minimal sulphur allows the wine to evolve naturally. And the human scale of production — small batches, hands-on work, no industrial machinery — ensures that every bottle carries the personality of the people who made it. The cellar is not a factory but a kitchen in a 200-year-old house, where two enologists bake pastries and ferment grapes with equal joy.
Mejor Ser Que Parecer, Ajayu, La La & the Happy Hand
The Vino La Joda portfolio is small, evolving, and deeply personal — each wine is named with intention and made with joy. The flagship line is "Mejor Ser Que Parecer" — a range of Pet-Nats and still wines that embody the project's philosophy of authenticity over appearance. The Ajayu is their Carmenere blend, harvested in two phases and made with minimal intervention. And La La is another expression of their playful, experimental spirit. All are made at human scale, all are unfiltered, and all carry the sediment that Jorge and Daniela proudly call part of the wine's character.
The Casona, the Pastry & the Inclusive Hand
Vino La Joda is not merely a winery; it is a life project — the story of how two enologists who met in the industrial wine world decided to build something slower, truer, and more joyful in a 200-year-old colonial house at the foot of the Andes. In an era when Chilean wine was defined by export volume, corporate consolidation, and the erasure of small-scale farming, Jorge Carrancá and Daniela Meruvia demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from a Carmenere vine on clay-sandy, rocky soil, harvested by hand in two phases, fermented by indigenous yeast in a 200-year-old casona, and bottled with sediment proudly on display. It is largely thanks to projects like La Joda that Pet-Nat, minimal-intervention Carmenere, and natural wine tourism now have a place in the Aconcagua Valley conversation.
The legacy of Vino La Joda is the legacy of the inclusive, community-oriented hand in Chilean viticulture. Jorge and Daniela are not typical Chilean winery founders: they are a Chilean-Bolivian couple who left corporate enology to make "crazier" wines for young spirits, who bake German pastries in their historic cellar, who won a regional tourism award for inclusive tourism, and who plan to offer tours in sign language. They have disability access in their 200-year-old house. They created "La Tripleta" — a collaborative tour uniting three local SMEs. They believe in relationships over volume. And they make wine that is free, happy, and a little bit crazy.
The future of the project is tied to the future of small-scale, sustainable viticulture and natural wine tourism in the Aconcagua Valley — to the growing recognition that the best wines come not from the most famous appellations but from the most committed guardians of place and community. As Mejor Ser Que Parecer continues to introduce the world to Chilean Pet-Nat, as Ajayu proves that Carmenere can be both soulful and minimal-intervention, and as the high-altitude Malbec promises to add a new dimension to the portfolio, Jorge and Daniela remain what they have always intended to be: a family from San Esteban who do not sell wines — they share a way of life. A life of pastry and fermentation, of historic walls and wild yeast, of inclusion and joy. Better to be than to seem. Free and happy. With sediment, and proud of it.
"Vino libre y feliz, tiene borra y nos gusta."
— Jorge Carrancá & Daniela Meruvia, Vino La Joda