VIK expands its WineLAB initiative to celebrate emerging talent
Chilean winery Viña VIK has celebrated the third edition of its WineLAB initiative, a project to discover and support the next generation of South American winemakers, which has expanded beyond Chile to embrace the region’s Southern Cone.
The award ceremony took place at the state-of-the-art VIK winery in Millahue Valley in Chile on 26 November, hosted by journalist Pablo Márquez, a director on Chile’s Canal 13’s radio channel who hosts popular wine program, Gran Reserva. It was followed by a reception featuring food prepared by VIK’s executive chef, expertly paired with the winery’s acclaimed wines.
This year marked a new milestone for the project with the inclusion of a Brazilian university, The Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA), for the first time, after VIK hosted a student from that university for the harvest last year. The expansion brings an international perspective to the programme – which VIK hopes that will be extended across the whole of Latin America in due course – consolidating it as a regional platform for emerging talent.
As VIK’s chief winemaker Cristián Vallejo explained, the main objective of the programme is to help the younger generation who are future winemakers of Chile, and South America more widely. As well as offering a three-month internship at VIK as the top prize, the awards gives an opportunity to travel abroad and get to know some of the best suppliers to different wine producers around the world, through Vik’s partnerships.
“Most of these students don’t have these fantastic opportunities and haven’t travelled outside of Chile,” Vallejo explained.
It is something Vallejo is very proud of, not only giving the students a guide and getting to know how VIK works, but also teaching them to make their own blend (with Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, and Syrah from Vik’s vineyards) and learning how they can provide a special character to the wines using different barrel techniques.
“More than assisting them in making the blends, our role is to explain how a blending definition process works: we share our philosophy and winemaking style and provide context about the characteristics of the vineyard blocks where the grapes originate,” Vallejo said, adding that the students bring great energy and new perspectives to the programme. However, he added that the students were free to make their own blends and the team did not intervene in their criteria or influence their decisions.
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Expansion
Twenty students took part in the 2025 edition: six from The Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA), five from both the University of Chile and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and four from the University of Talca – the three most important centres for oenology in Chile.
The blending process itself took place over two weeks – the Chilean students working at the winery at VIK in person, while the Brazilian students worked remotely, with all students working with the same components of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère and Syrah.
The students could chose from a variety of different barrel toastings, and each blend was then then aged for five months in the winery’s in-house barroir barrels before the judging by an impressive panel of winemakers, sommeliers, and well-known wine authors and consultants.
The panel included Vallejo and VIK winemaker Priscila Fernández, and marketing manager Andrea García Calvo, along with Brazilian sommelier Daniella Romano, author and consultant Karen McNeil, Amanda Barnes MW, Vivien Morvan, winemaker at Gilbert & Gaillard, sommelier and founder of Vinómanos.com Alejandro Iglesias, sommelier Marcelo Pino, Jean Luc Sylvain, director of Tonelería Sylvain and Ricardo Bobadilla, commercial manager of Oenology & Agroindustry, Vinicas.
Prize winners
The top prize was awarded to Natalia Canelo, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile who wins a three-month internship at VIK, and the opportunity to create their final product with support from the winemaking and marketing teams, as well as a trip to France to see how a cooperage works (supported by Tonelería Sylvain) and Italy (supported by VASON).
Cristián González, Universidad de Chile took the second prize, winning a trip to Portugal with R-Cork, and Verona with Enológica Vason. Brazilian student Lenise Albrecht Luz da Silva took the third spot, winning a trip to France with Laffort and Nadalié, and Italy to visit the AEB Group.
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