Uthan Uthatun

The Itata valley stretches across the hills and plains of south-central Chile, following the river towards the Pacific. Indigenous communities lived in this country before Spanish conquest. During the colonial period, estates developed along a route linking the frontier with the capital, and their owners raised livestock and cultivated grain and vines. Jesuit estates became important to the valley economy in the seventeenth century, helping to establish a long tradition of wine production.