Rodrigo Espinosa
Winemaker
Born in Chile in 1969, Rodrigo Espinosa graduated from the University of Chile in 1998 with a degree in Agricultural Engineering and Enology. He began his career at Viña La Rosa in 1998 as assistant winemaker. In 1999, he joined the operations and winemaking team at Viña Concha y Toro. In this tenure, he was in charge of the logistics, the winemaking processes and the quality control inspections. In 2001, he was hired by Caliterra Winery as winemaker for La Arboleda Cellar in the Colchagua Valley. At Caliterra he had the opportunity to team up with the sales department, learning sales techniques and gaining promotional skills. n 2002, he had the opportunity to be part of the winemaking team at the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville.
Since 2003, he is the chief winemaker of Bodegas Fontana, in Spain. In 2005, he started a brand new project focused on terroir studies in order to identify the most suitable soils to produce distinctive and high quality wines in La Mancha.
This family-owned vineyard and winery is situated in the northerly Alcarria region of Spain's central plateau, not far from Toledo. For 50 years the Cantarero family has farmed these gentle hillsides at altitudes from 2,500 to 3,000 feet. The Bodegas Fontana estate provides ideal growing conditions for quality Tempranillo. Re-built in 1997 to fully modern standards, the winery is now in the hands of Rodrigo Espinosa whose experience as a winemaker in Chile honed his preference for full-throttle, fruit-forward wines that are a pleasure to drink.
