Firm Creation, Firm Evolution and Clusters in Chile’s Dynamic Wine Sector: Evidence from the Colchagua and Casablanca Regions

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originate from the traditional wine producing spheres. Consumer trends of demanding
more quality wine than table wine will also have made actors desire to set up a firm to
take advantage of higher values in the wine industry.

Exogenous factors can also be used to explain the increase in firms in the 1990’s in Chile.
Australia and California had an effect owing to their deficit of grapes. This meant both
countries bought grapes from Chile, increasing grape prices from 400% and encouraging
further planting there (Arnold et al, 2002). In an interview Bisquertt, CEO of Vina
Bisquertt in Colchagua, said that around this period Rothschild came to Chile,
encouraging actors that Chile could make a lot of money from wine exports. The
technological revolution that had occurred in Australia and California (Gwynne, 2006 &
Jadriesic, 2008) influenced Chile to try to use these new techniques and it is arguably the
revolution made actors perceive the wine industry to be a more accessible sector.

One of the most important factors of the technological revolution is that it increased
people’s knowledge of the effects of climate on wine-making. This led to an examination
of the different climates within Chile and the first plantings in Casablanca, where the
climate is perfect for white wines due to cold fogs that come in from the sea (Sotta,
2008).

It is important here to note a differentiation between the two valleys under study. Table 3
demonstrates that Casablanca Valley has a higher percentage of companies set up in the
1990s, whereas in Colchagua Valley there are a higher percentage of firms set up before
this time. Where companies were set up before this period of rejuvenation, all in
Colchagua, these firms did not start export on a large scale until two decades ago. The

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