Juan Ignacio Mena
Chile
A genuine artisan, one-man band, small-scale Chilean winemaker!
- Juan is our favourite kind of winemaker. Big on grapes. Small on international wine marketing. A genuine artisan, one-man band, small-scale winemaker.
- Juan doesn't own a suit. Probably. He certainly doesn't have a sales manager. So when Juan's principal client went bust we stepped in and helped out. In exchange for preferential prices.
- Juan's 2011 vintages are just in. Fresh, pure and delicious. Being a small producer, we don't have an endless supply of Juan's wine. So best get in while you can.
Vineyard Location
Juan Ignacio Mena's Story
Juan Ignacio Mena's Story
One of the great things about Juan Ignacio is that he operates a community-based vineyard that employs a large number of locals and ensures all workers have shares in the company to reward their hard work. He wants it to feel like it's a big family (and he knows something about big families seeing as how he has six kids of his own!)
Angel support allows Juan Ignacio to prosper and in turn feeds an entire local community in the Maule Valley. It's a perfect example of how Naked Angels are making a real difference in the wine world, breathing new life into regions that know how to make wine but don't always know how to sell it.
"Hi there, my name is Juan Mena, I am Chilean, happily married and father of 6 wonderful kids. 41 years, agronomy engineer and winemaker. My story with wine started in 1997, when I began to take care of the lands my family had bought in San Javier, Maule, and transform them in a prosperous and special vineyard... our family vineyard, Tinajas del Maule.
Our vineyard is located in Maule Valley (south center of Chile), wich is a cold area, where the fresh fruit aromas stand out over the smoke and marmelade the rest of the country is known for. Our wines are young and friendly, lively, fruity with little oak, soft wines silky instead of dry and astringent.
One of our most important challenges has been to give work and training to not professional people. We have conformed a great working team. These people of great human qualities and values, have become experts in the area despite their little studies, but big effort in learning, team with whom we have developed products of international quality standard (IFS, ISO 9001).
I really hope you can enjoy our wines. They are the produce of the decision of taking the best of nature and the best of people. So, as we say in my country: “ salud “! (cheers)"
