Establecimiento Juanicó

The estate of Establecimiento Juanicó, about 40 kilometres north of Montevideo, has a particularly storied past. Prior to 1740, the Jesuits farmed this land, which was then part of a larger holding called the Estancia Chacra San José, supplying their missions until the order was expelled from Spanish territories in 1767. The stone cellar at the heart of the modern winery dates back to their time. In 1830 the property passed to Francisco Juanicó, an immigrant from Mahón in Menorca, whose descendants planted extensive vineyards and gave their name to the local village. In the early 20th century it passed to the Seré and Methol families, pioneers of Uruguay’s dairy industry, before being taken over in the mid-1940s by Argentina’s state fuel and alcohol monopoly, which replanted it to make a national brandy, Cognac Juanicó.

The estate eventually returned to private hands in 1979, when Juan Carlos Deicas bought it and once again refocused it toward fine wine for export; the family says it sent the first full container of Uruguayan wine overseas, bound for London. Juan Carlos’s son, Fernando Deicas, brought us Preludio, a blend built to age like a Bordeaux, and the country’s first wine from grapes affected by noble rot. 

Today, a third generation, represented by Santiago Deicas, runs the business. Grapes are picked by hand in the cool of the early morning, which keeps the fruit fresh and in good condition on its way to the winery. Cover crops grow between the rows, and bunches are thinned before veraison, the point at which the grapes begin to ripen, to concentrate the remaining fruit. In terms of varietals, Tannat leads the reds, alongside Merlot, both Cabernets, Marselan and the Swiss crossing Gamaret, with Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Albariño on the white side.