Cono Sur wines sponsor the Tour de France
Cono Sur Head Winemaker and CEO Adolfo Hurtado was in town recently to talk about their continued sponsorship of the Tour de France. This is the second year that Cono Sur has been the official wine of the Tour. It may sound rather unusual to have a Chilean winery sponsoring a French sporting event but they have been allowed to be one of the official sponsors. The only catch being, they can only advertise while on the legs of the tour that are not actually held in France.
Adolfo Hurtado, CEO and chiefwinemaker, Cono Sur wines
It’s only fitting as they are known as the wine with “the bicycle on front” that they should sponsor the Tour. The sponsorship is not coincidental as they are obsessed with bicycles in the vineyards of Cono Sur. As a matter of fact, their employees travel all through the vineyards and home again on bicycles. Adolfo commented that when you visit, there is always a row of bicycles waiting for the next rider.
Cono Sur has commissioned limited edition Bicycle bells to commemorate the 102nd edition of the Tour de France. “These specially commissioned golden bells are to give thousands of Bicicleta wine drinkers something extra to remember whilst enjoying these great wines as well as this exciting sporting event.“ The bells will be on the Bicicleta range of wines. Cono Sur wines will as noted earlier be featuring in the ‘pre-race’ caravan during the Grand Depart phases which this year take place in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Of course, Adolfo also had some wines for us to try. We were treated to their range of pinot noir wines. They are becoming increasingly well known for their pinot noir and Adolfo is very proud of all the work they’ve done over the years to find the best terroir for pinot noir in Chile. He says that the style and quality of Chilean pinot noir has improvedand changed a lot over the years. They have now gotten to the point where they are selecting the best spots to plant pinot noir and he predicts that the wines will only get better in the coming years.
In the meantime, we can enjoy the pinot noir’s that they are already producing. I know I’ll be popping open a bottle of Bicicleta pinot noir when the Tour de France starts or whenever… Look for the special bottles with the bicycle bells attached in stores.