The city was founded in 1753 as Santa Barbara of Casablanca in honor of the wife of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII, who died only five years later, and an emblematic white manor house, which historians have never been able to locate.
This dusty valley, where valuable archeological pieces such as Mapuche warcraft stones have been found, could boast of its strategic importance, but not of its economical success. The indigenous population was scant and so was water.
Despite the problems produced by the lack of water, Casablanca gained significant political power. In their lands were born the presidents Manuel and Jorge Montt, heroes like Julio Montt Salamanca, painters such as Arturo Gordon, and the poems of Alejandro Galaz. Father Alberto Hurtado, Chile’s second saint, also spent much of his childhood in this valley.
Over time, the construction of the reservoirs Los Perales, Lo Ovalle, Lo Orozco and Pitama brought water and a new life to the valley. Fruit trees, such as pears and apples, were planted. Livestock breeding expanded and Casablanca became a milk-producing area.
The wine-producing history of Casablanca is more recent. In the late 1970, the Concha y Toro Vineyard asked the winemaker Pablo Morandé to find a good place to produce white wines capable of shaking up the market. The enologist searched from Ovalle to Mulchén, but something told him that the search was over and Casablanca was the place.

Concha y Toro eventually decided to abandon the project, but Pablo Morandé bought 20 hectares and planted his first Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. The official birth of Casablanca’s white wines came in 1985, when he introduced the first Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to his peers in the Association of Enologist- Agricultural Engineers.

Another pioneer, Ignacio Recabarren, played an essential role. As Santa Rita’s winemaker, he began buying Morande’s fruit and proposed himself to convince the more conservative people that the potential of the valley had no limits.
In a wink - barely more than a decade - more than 4,000 additional hectares were planted. The valley became an aspirational phenomenon. Casablanca also made the transition from a poor rural community of slightly over 16,000 inhabitants to one of the region’s most attractive development area.
Today, there are many important and prestigious Chilean vineyards in the valley, like Veramonte, Emiliana, Morandé, Casas del Bosque, Viña Mar, Casa Lapostolle, Indómita and Viña Casablanca, among others, which will continue to strengthen its prestige all over the world.

“... This ancient village is a sailing ship / cast upon the plains by a harsh storm ... / there is in all things a mariner’s sorrow / and in the peasant souls a thirst for adventure...”   Alejandro Galaz