Alex Guarachi came to the United States from Chile in 1978 on a soccer scholarship, but an injury ended his plans to become a professional player.

So Guarachi became an entrepreneur. He began importing wine from his native country and launched a company, TGIC Importers Inc., which stands for Thank God It’s Chilean.

“We started from nothing, from suitcases,” Guarachi said.

TGIC has since expanded to wines from Argentina, Australia, Italy, South Africa and New Zealand. The company also started making its own wines under the Guarachi Family Wines label three years ago – a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, and a Chardonnay and pinot noir from Sonoma. Those hit stores earlier this year.

The Woodland Hills company scored major coups when Wine Spectator, the most popular wine magazine in the United States, gave the Cabernet Sauvignon a 92 rating in April and the pinot noir a 94 in June. Buyers flooded the company’s office with calls. Guarachi expects sales will rise 12 percent this year.

TGIC now sells wine to major retailers such as Costco, employs 70 and brings in annual revenue of $54 million.

But success wasn’t apparent from the start. When Guarachi and a partner – who died in 2005 – started TGIC with $25,000 in savings in ’78, most American wine drinkers had never heard of South American vintages.

“I even got one guy who asked me, ‘Where is Chile?’” Guarachi recalled.

Eventually, TGIC’s wines gained in popularity because tastes had become more sophisticated, and consumers were more willing to experiment with wines from Chile, Argentina and other countries such as Australia.

Surprisingly, the weak economy has helped TGIC. That’s because the majority of its wines retail for $10 to $15 a bottle, and wine drinkers have been trading down.

“That’s where the business is,” Guarachi said. “People are looking for that $10 bottle of wine that overdelivers.”

All that may be true and Chilean wines have improved, but one local wine expert said European and California vintages are in no danger of losing their shelf supremacy.

“South American wines suffered for years in that much of their wine making was primitive, but that’s improved,” said Martin Weiner, founder of the Los Angeles School of Wines in West Los Angeles.

Despite that, he said, there isn’t a huge market. “Is there a great reservoir out there for Chilean wine? No.”