About

The Story of a Dream

When I was born, I grew up with a dream, a dream to make my own wine, with my own name on it, a wine that was coming from Lo Abarca. It was just a dream, and I would never think that I would be able to realize it. But I started studying wine making and worked for many years in San Pedro before starting 15 years ago my own bulk wine business, Xpovin. This business gave me the opportunity to make my dream come true…

I planted the first vines of my dream in Lo Abarca, ten years ago, located in the cool climate San Antonio Valley. People thought I was crazy, a woman with such a big project and so close to the Ocean…? She must be nuts!!! Maybe I am crazy, but I was, and still am, sure about my project and the many awards have shown that I was right.

I planted the first vines in December 1999, with which I was, and still am, the closest vineyard to the Pacific Ocean in South America. My first harvest was in 2003, and I entered the UK market with the most expensive Chilean white wines…Again people thought I was crazy! But again, they were wrong, now, 10 years later many Chilean vineyards are producing more expensive whites than I am.

Anyway, during those 10 years I have faced many challenges, and still I am, especially with being a business woman in the o so hard Chilean wine making world. Luckily I am working side-by-side with my family and together we run our business. In 2009, my son Felipe joined me officially as a wine maker of Casa Marín, and also my son Nicolas makes sure that everything goes smooth in the office.

In my winery I love to receive visitors, clients and fans of Casa Marín and often I or my brother Osvaldo attends them. I  am always enjoying it, sharing the same passion with people you don’t know, learn from each other, and then before you know you become friends.

So that’s when I thought to launch a website where me and my family would be able to exchange  our passions and where we would be able to learn from each other. Of course, our main passion is wine but also we have great passions for our country, Chile, for our little town Lo Abarca, our community Cartagena and San Antonio and for Pablo Neruda and other great poets from Chile. My sister Patricia has a very special passion for Mosaics… We all have our own passion, and somehow our wines are all inspired by them…

Thanks for visiting us and I hope to receive you one day in my vineyard!

Maria Luz Marin