The origin story of Stonevik—the latest introduction from VIK, a pioneering winery neighbored by its sister hotel in central Chile—is rooted some 3,000 feet above sea level, in a mountaintop forest between the Andes and the Pacific, amidst a circle of century-old oak trees. Here, in amphorae handcrafted from clay sourced from the Vik estate and half-buried in the earth, the wine ages, untouched by human hands—culminating in a literally groundbreaking blend Vik bills as “the ultimate natural wine, crafted by nature, in nature.”
Stonevik marks a new milestone in Vik’s quest to become one of the world’s most renowned wineries—a passion project that began in 2004 when its owners, Norwegian investor and entrepreneur Alexander Vik and his wife, Carrie, embarked on a wildly ambitious mission.
“We put together a scientific team with the objective of finding one of the best terroirs in the world, to make some of the best Bordeaux-style red wines in the world,” says Alexander Vik.
That epic two-year search ultimately led to the Millahue Valley, nestled in the foothills of the Andes within the greater Cachapoal Valley, a hundred miles south of Santiago. In 2006, the Viks purchased an 11,000-acre swath of virgin wilderness there called Lugar de Oro (“Golden Place”) by the area’s indigenous Mapuche people—perhaps a reference to how the rose-hued horizon shimmers just above the surrounding hills at dusk.
