Familia Dardanelli

When in 1949 Constante Dardanelli decided to build his own winery, his chosen plot in Avenida San Martín, Montevideo, already had its own inhabitants: three beautiful palm trees. As well as a little shade for the construction workers, they provided the name for his very first wine, 3 Palmas, a table wine which the family still makes to this day. 

Constante had arrived in Uruguay from the province of Cuneo, in Piedmont, Italy, with his wife in 1922, and learned his trade as a labourer in the local vineyards. His was a family business from the outset, with Constante’s children working alongside him, and it was his eldest son, Dino, who drove it forward with his brothers and sisters. 

Now into its fourth generation, Familia Dardanelli has moved beyond table wines, into fine wines and its Enthusiast range of natural wines, made without added sulphites. Its modern winery is on Camino de los Molinos, in rural Montevideo, half an hour from the city centre, but sources its grapes from vineyards in Canelones as well as Montevideo, including Tannat from Las Violetas. In 2022, the winery was among the first six in Uruguay to be certified under the national Sustainable Viticulture programme.