St. Stephen Organic Vineyards Wins CORFO Regional Program of Support for Entrepreneurship for Marketing Innovation

Chilean Organic Producer Entering U.S. Market

Press Release

SAN JOSÉ, Calif., Dec. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Stephen Vineyards, LLC (SSV) today announced the company was named winner of the Chilean government's 2018 CORFO Regional Program of Support for Entrepreneurship (PRAE) for marketing innovation.

CORFO is a Chilean government agency, part of the Ministry of Economy, dedicated to the promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology. The objective of the CORFO PRAE competition is to support entrepreneurs with high growth potential and international scope. The competition is open to startups, and winners are evaluated on innovation in technology and in marketing. The prize awarded for the 2018 competition was 25 million Chilean pesos, about $42,000 US dollars.

St. Stephen Organic Vineyards submitted a detailed project outlining work to investigate, identify, and test both conventional and alternative marketing channels for small and medium sized Chilean vineyards to enter the US Market.

Tim Edwards, St. Stephens Organic Vineyards

"This honor validates our work to define and test alternative distribution channels in the United States for organic wine and is a first step to opening the door to roughly 80% of Chile's vineyards who are currently shut out of the US market," said St. Stephen Organic Vineyards President, Tim Edwards. "Chile makes among the highest quality wines in the world, and the Colchagua Valley was named 'World's Best Wine Region' by Wine Enthusiast magazine. We are a caused-based marketing organization, dedicated to improving our environment. We are really grateful for CORFO's generous support of our efforts."

Emiliano Orueta Bustos, Regional Director of CORFO in the O'Higgins Region of Chile commented: "For CORFO, this project is very interesting, and was chosen because it presents an innovative business model which increases the visibility of our wine industry in the important US market."

St. Stephen Organic Vineyards became available in the US in September 2018 and can be purchased online at StStephen.cl and from selected fine wine dealers.

St. Stephen Vineyards, LLC is based in San José, CA and imports and distributes St. Stephen wine in the United States. Viña St. Stephen, Ltda. is based in San José de los Lingues Chile with certified organic vineyards located in the Colchagua Valley of Chile. A "cause marketing" organization, St. Stephen donates a significant portion of the profits for each bottle sold to helping environmental causes in the United States and Chile. For more information about St. Stephen, visit the company's website at http://www.StStephen.cl for product and company updates, or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ststephenwine/.