Aconcagua, which takes its name from the nearby Aconcagua River, is one of Chile's five Denominacions de Origen and includes the warmish Aconcagua Valley — home to Errázuriz, one of Chile's prominent wine producers — as well as the more coastal, cool districts of Casablanca Valley and San Antonio Valley.
Along with the Valle Central, Aconcagua makes up Chile's historic wine centre, and these two areas are still where most of the country's best wine districts are found; a lion's share of all wine exported from Chile comes from them.
In the early 1990s Errázuriz partnered with California's Robert Mondavi Winery to create Seña, a Bordeaux blend that cost a startlingly high $55 on its 1998 release.
Rising up behind many of Chile's vineyards are the majestic Andes, the longest mountain chain in the world, whose peaks reach 22,000 feet and are exceeded in elevation only by the Himalayas; when the chain was formed, sedimentary rocks folded into ridges, creating many of the sheltered valleys in which Chile's vineyards lie.