Jaime de la Barra

Winegrowing Director

Jaime de la Barra was born in Chile. Agronomist and Winemaker from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he also holds an MBA from the same University. Throughout his career, he has complemented his studies with courses in the University of Texas, Politecnico di Milano and Tsinghua University in Beijing, together with technical trips to the winemaking regions of California and Oregon, Argentina, Italy, France and Spain.

For the past 16 years, Jaime has been working in the wine industry. He started as assistant winemaker in US Kendall-Jackson, including other brands of the company as Cardinale and LaJota Vineyard, where he also was involved in marketing and sales.

Back in Chile, de la Barra joined winery De Martino in the commercial area, working closely with the winemaking team in wine development and having the chance to understand wines from the north valley of Elqui all the way to the southern areas of Traiguén.

After this, he joined Santa Rita as export manager for Continental Europe markets in 2011 and, in 2012, he was appointed as Regional Director for the same area. Here, he led the commercial team in projects such as the direct sales model in Germany, the Netherlands and trade marketing initiatives in Scandinavian countries, key markets of the region.

In December 2014, he was appointed Corporate Marketing Director, overseeing all brands of the group –Santa Rita, Carmen, Doña Paula and Sur Andino. In this role, Jaime was responsible for the major change in brand strategy: a shift towards global brands, aligning the portfolio construction of each brand under one single concept worldwide making it significant impact into global consumer perception in major markets.

Starting June 2020, de la Barra took on the position of Winegrowing Director, in charge of the viticulture and winemaking areas of Santa Rita Estates, both in Chile and Argentina, where he hopes to continue deepening the knowledge and understanding of each terroir to produce great wines.