VINA FALERNIA
ELQUI VALLEY, CHILE
Vina Falernia
Viña Falernia was established in 1998 after Aldo Olivier Gramola realized the potential for producing superb wines in this semi-arid valley.
The Olivier’s family is originally from a small village in the northern Italian region of Trentino called Dimaro, located in the Alps in the beautiful “Val di Sole”. Today it is a wonderful place for skiing in winter and trekking in summer. In 1951 the Italian economy was drastically failing, so Aldo’s father decided to leave their country for Chile, taking an opportunity given by the development plan agreed between the Chilean President, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla and the Italian Prime Minister Alcide Degasperi. In May 1951 the family arrived to the Coquimbo/La Serena region, as one of the 200 families to make the journey.
Aldo was 12 years old, the oldest of his 7 brothers and after arriving to Chile, he gained two more siblings! The Olivier’s started their life in the southern hemisphere cultivating vegetables; a few years later Aldo got married and moved from La Serena to a small village located in Elqui Valley, called El Tambo, part of Vicuña district, where he and his wife decided to start a family and had 4 children. In 1972 he started planting grape vines for Pisco production (The Chilean national spirit) and a few years later, he established his own Pisco distillery that quickly became the third largest producer in Chile.
Two decades later the Falernia project was born, in 1995 after he met his cousin Giorgio Flessati, an oenologist working in the Trentino region in northern Italy.
Falernia began as an innovative venture, as it is Chile’s most northerly winery estate, a considerable distance from the country’s main wine-growing areas.
The driving force has been a passion for the wine and the challenge of transforming a tract of desert into a green vineyard with enormous potential. Utilizing the latest technologies and support from Chilean agronomist Eduardo Silva, Viña Falernia has succeeded in transforming itself in a Premium wine producer.
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