Santiago, March 4th, 2010.- Five days after the big earthquake that hit the south-central zone of Chile, the San Pedro Tarapacá Group (VSPT), the second largest wine producer in the country, made up by San Pedro, Tarapacá, Santa Helena, Misiones de Rengo, Altaïr, Viña Mar and Casa Rivas wineries in Chilean territory, in addition to Finca de Celia and Bodega Tamarí Argentinean wineries, informed it has begun its 2010 grape harvest and is partially resuming its operations, according to what has been previously informed.
After carrying out the regular cleanup labors following an event of this nature, making sure that fortunately there were no human losses to regret, and repairing some of the damage and thanks to restoration of basic services and connectivity, bottling and labeling labors have been partially resumed in three of the main cellars today.
In addition to this, yesterday (Wednesday, March 3rd), the first three post-earthquake containers were already dispatched to the port of Valparaiso to be destined to Asia, Canada and Mexico. In the national market, we are working coordinately in order to normalize its dispatches as soon as possible.
Also, the group has begun season 2010’s grape harvest, beginning with the harvest of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc grapes in its cellars in Rengo, Molina, San Fernando and Casablanca.
As expected, due to the great intensity of the earthquake, there were wine losses, which the group is still assessing. According to the best estimate to date, the losses were approximately 9.4 million liters of bulk wine, while the losses of bottled wine are still being assessed.
However, these losses are consistent with quantities recorded by the general industry, of 125 million liters, equivalent to 12.5% of the total production obtained during the 2009 season, declared by Vinos de Chile guild association in an official communiqué released yesterday.
According to its calculations, the group estimates it will be able to meet all of its pre-established commercial agreements.
As foreseen, these have been days of intense work that are already starting to bear fruit. The San Pedro Tarapacá Group continues working focusing on bringing its operations back to normal, receiving the 2010 vintage and giving all of the necessary support to its people and nearby communities.
