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Esteban Lepe: Growing in the Shadow of the Andes
Article Composed Summer 2009 |
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Nestled in the cradle of the High Aconcagua Valley, the town of Curimón has a history as rich as the glacial soil that coats the valley’s floor. It’s a place of running water and steep mountain slopes, a place the legendary Inca Empire once called home.
For 700 years, agriculture has flourished in Curimón — and since the mid-1800s, Esteban Lepe Bosio’s family has grown there. Today, the Lepe vineyard, Fundo las Casas de Curimón, supplies Oppenheimer with high-quality Thompson Seedless grapes, representing an important part of our winter Chilean import program.
Though we’ve marketed Lepe grapes for nine years, the Lepe family has been in business for much longer. Growing table grapes is challenging and meticulous work, but by focusing on quality and family above all else, the Lepes have thrived.
“Over the years we have learned that we need two things to produce the best Chilean grapes — exceptional land, with the best soil and climate, and an outstanding group of experienced people,” said Esteban. “We have both.”
 The region’s rich fertile soil is deposited by runoff from the Andes Mountains, and the vineyard has 250 acres of it. Finding experienced people is made easier by the fact that Fundo las Casas is a family operation — not only for Esteban, but for many of his employees as well.
“Our team goes from 50 to 400 in the harvest season,” he said. “A majority of them have been with us for many years, and many of their parents and grandparents worked on the farm in the past.”
Over the last century-and-a-half, the Lepe family has seen its business change dramatically.
“Originally, the Lepe family grew a variety of produce according to the market demands of each moment,” Esteban explained. “But in 1960, Roberto Lepe Flauraud transformed it into a modern company. As a civil engineer, he modernized all of the production processes, and along with the agronomist Justus Lotmann, practically invented the process of exporting grapes from Chile to North America, with emphasis on premium quality and condition.”
The family grew and experimented with other grape varieties before settling on Thompson Seedless, which currently represents 97 percent of their crop. “Curimón lands are really exceptional in all of Chile for Thompson Seedless,” Esteban said.
Lepe grapes are known for being top quality, a result of intense dedication and focus.
“For some growers, the volume and quantity is more important than quality,” he said. “But fortunately, U.S. customers do put quality and condition over other factors. When it comes to premium grapes, they are looking for firm, crisp, excellent tasting, large-sized fruit, with absolutely no decay and a long shelf-life. Lepe grapes meet all of those standards.”
Esteban’s dedication to quality goes beyond the vineyard, as he comes to the U.S. each spring to ensure that his grapes are as perfect on arrival at Oppenheimer as they were when they were harvested.
His precise and detailed nature may be a clue to his first profession — before he entered the family business, Esteban was an architect, trained at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago. “I came with my family to live and work in the field in 2007,” he said. He and his wife, Francisca, have two children — Vicente, who is three, and Mara, just one month old.
“To live with my family, in this valley… I really love this place,” he said. His favorite parts of the job? “To work with plants, especially grapes, the possibility to share premium Chilean produce with U.S. citizens, and to offer work and sustenance to more than 300 families.”
--story by Kinley Engdahl-Johnson, Media Relations Specialist |
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Did you know The Oppenheimer Group is the industry's second largest grape supplier by volume?
This would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of our grower-partners in Chile, Mexico and California who enable us to supply customers with a 12-month volume of their preferred varieties.
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