The award ceremony took place after a selection of assemblages created by 26 students from the faculties of Agronomy and Enology of the Universidad de Chile, the Universidad Católica and the Universidad de Talca, which was made by a jury of distinguished exponents of the national and international industry.
On December 15, the winners of the first version of Wine LAB were announced, a project led by Viña Viik that seeks to discover and promote young talent in winemaking, as part of an effort to advance its social commitment to the wine industry in Chile.
Thanks to an unprecedented alliance between academia and the wine industry, 26 outstanding students from the enology faculties of three prestigious Chilean universities had the opportunity to do an internship at Viña VIK, where they were able to access the winery and learn directly from its processes.
For several months, the team led by Cristián Vallejo, VIK's chief winemaker, supervised that each student had the opportunity to make their own blends with VIK grape varieties, applying aging techniques and using VIK barrels under the 'Barroir' concept. "The results were amazing. We were able to appreciate the young talent and enormous work capacity of these winemakers, who dazzled the jury and the industry with their high quality oenological bets," commented Cristian Vallejo.
Thus, Sebastián Farías and Katherine Cruz, students from the Universidad de Talca, won first and second place respectively, while third place went to a student from the Universidad de Chile, Katherine Cortés. The awards ceremony was attended by Alexander and Carrie Vik, founders of the winery, together with university authorities and people from the wine industry.
The first prize will travel to France, where they will visit the facilities of Sylvain, one of the largest barrel suppliers in the world, and then visit Italy, where they will be hosted by Enológica Vason, a company specialized in the selection of raw materials and the formulation of products for the winemaking industry. At this last point he will have the opportunity to create his own wine up to the final stage, with packaging included and with the support of Enology, Marketing and supplies to support its diffusion.
The jury was composed of journalist Patricio Tapia (Descorchados Chile and Brazil), Mariana Martínez (sommelier and wine editor), Alejandro Iglesias (Argentina, Decanter jury), Eduardo Milán (Brazil, Decanter jury), Jean-Luc Sylvain (owner of Sylvain cooperage in France), R-Cork general manager Henrique Ribeiro from Portugal, Valle Secreto winemaker Alejandra Vallejo, Maturana Wines winemaker José Miguel Maturana, VIK chief winemaker Cristian Vallejo, VIK marketing manager Andrea García, VIK winemaker Priscila Fernández and Mario Oliva, VIK winemaking manager.
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