Matías Ríos is the winemaker at Cono Sur in Colchagua Valley, Chile. He earned his degree in Agricultural Engineering with a specialization in viticulture and enology from Pontificia University in 1999. Since then, he has been instrumental in leading Cono Sur’s sustainability and organic initiatives, helping position the winery as a pioneer in Chile.
Driven by a spirit of exploration, he has worked across Chile’s wine regions, focusing on matching each terroir with the most suitable grape variety. As Winemaking Director since 2010, Matías has guided Cono Sur’s continued innovation, with a strong emphasis on Pinot Noir and white wines.
Starting in 1999, he contributed to Cono Sur’s long-term effort to elevate Chilean Pinot Noir, including collaboration with Burgundian consultant Martin Prieur and the development of a dedicated Pinot Noir cellar combining traditional techniques with modern technology. In 2010, he became chief winemaker.
Under his leadership, Cono Sur has earned widespread recognition. Matías was named one of the Top 100 Global Master Winemakers by The Drinks Business in both 2020 and 2024.
Media Inquiries: Maria Olga Urzua Acuña maria.urzua@conosurwinery.cl | https://www.conosur.com/home/
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
Our winery is located in Chimbarongo, a small town in the Colchagua Valley. When we launched Chile’s first organic Pinot Noir, the design team spent time at the winery observing everyday life instead of sitting in a meeting room looking for ideas. They noticed something simple but powerful: everyone rode bicycles. Vineyard workers arrived on them, moved around the winery on them, and cycled home for lunch. That bicycle became our label. It already existed in the daily life of our people. It was our way of paying tribute to the community that has shaped.
Interestingly, Chimbarongo has also played another pioneering role in our story. Years before Pinot Noir became “trendy” in Chile, this valley and particularly this location were considered cool enough to plant Pinot Noir. Today, we still have some of the oldest Pinot Noir vineyards there, and we’ve even built one of Chile’s only cellars dedicated exclusively to this variety.
Our story started not about a logo or a brand. It’s about people. The bicycle reminds us that wines don’t begin in the cellar; they begin with the people who make them possible every day.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained.
Most winemakers dream about finding the next great vineyard. I dream about finding this vineyard on the next planet. The most exciting part of winemaking today is exploring extremes, new soils, climates, places where nobody thought vines could thrive. So if there were no limits, I would plant a vineyard on the moon. I ask myself how a wine would express a place that isn’t even on this planet? I think that winemaking has always been about exploration. We moved from Europe to the New World, from valleys to high mountains, from warm climates to cool climates. Maybe one day the next limit will be another world.
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
Ocio! When Chile became famous in the winemaking map for bold reds as Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere, we chose a different way. We believed Pinot Noir could become one of Chile’s greatest expressions, even when nobody shared that vision. This decision was based on history. In the late 60s, Pinot Noir was planted in our vineyards in Chimbarongo because, at the time, the area was considered one of Chile’s cooler regions. We recognized their value and decided to build our future around them rather than replace them.
For more than twenty-five years, we’ve also worked alongside Martin Prieur from Domaine Jacques Prieur in Burgundy. As a winemaking team, we wanted to understand Pinot Noir at its birthplace, not to copy Burgundy, but to understand its soul and express it through a Chilean personality.
Today, Ocio comes from the vineyards in San Antonio, where the closest vineyards are just five kilometres away from the Pacific Ocean, where the cool climate and the Humboldt current allow Pinot Noir to reveal elegance, freshness and precision. The name Ocio means leisure, the increasing luxury of having time for yourself in these modern times. It’s an invitation to enjoy a wine that rewards patience. I think Pinot Noir deserves that kind of attention. And what better moment than that time you dedicate to yourself to be accompanied by a great Pinot Noir? Stay tuned, this wine review is coming soon!
Bonus Question: Why Winemaking?
To be honest, I didn’t fall in love with wine at first. I fell in love with agriculture.
In the first years at the university, I was convinced my future would be in table grapes. I even worked in the United States receiving Chilean fruit for export. It was a great experience, but it also taught me something very important in my life. In the table grape business, perfection is mostly visual. The fruit has to look flawless.
In the wine business, is the kind of the opposite. Nobody cares if the grapes are perfectly symmetrical. What matters here is whether they tell the truth about the place where they came from. The vineyard, the soil, the weather, the people who worked it, the decisions made during the season. That’s what fascinated me.
A bottle of wine is more than that; it’s a time capsule. Every vintage captures a particular year that will never happen again. When you open that bottle, you’re opening a memory of a place, a season and the people behind it. That’s why I became a winemaker. Not because I wanted to make a perfect product; I wanted to preserve moments. Wine has this beautiful ability to preserve memories and make them meaningful long after the vintage is over.