Besoain Wines

The winery

Besoain Wines is a small-scale family winery in the Los Morros area, between Buin and Pirque, about 45 minutes from Santiago. Its first harvest was in 2004, with a single 2,500-liter vat loaded by hand with buckets and nine barrels that winemaker Miguel Besoaín personally selected and toasted. Trained at the University of Burgundy, he worked ten years in France and Germany, where he rose to technical director of a winery in the Pfalz, and in 2009 returned to Chile to take over the family vineyard, whose first rows his father planted in 1989, according to one of its importers. Today the winery has capacity for 60,000 liters and 250 barrels, exports to four continents and has a subsidiary in Germany.

The estate vineyard grows at about 650 meters above sea level, on a terrace of the Maipo River with very gravelly alluvial and colluvial soils, in the zone the winery identifies as Maipo Andes, and is farmed sustainably. Besoain Estate, the icon wine, is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with Carménère and Petit Verdot that spends 18 months in French oak barrels and more than a year in bottle; its 2016 vintage won a gold medal and the Maipo Red Trophy, with 95 points, at the 2021 International Wine Challenge in London, plus gold at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. The Besoain Single Vineyard line brings together limited, hand-harvested editions, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon from Los Morros, a Carménère from Las Pataguas, in Cachapoal, and a Riesling from Mulchén, in Biobío. Los Morros is the line of young, fruity wines, unoaked or briefly aged, and Trotamundos is a minimal-intervention project with César, a winemaker based in the United States, using grapes from different valleys.

The winery is visited by booking only, Tuesday to Saturday between 10:00 and 18:00, ideally with 48 hours' notice. There are three guided tours, for small groups, that share a welcome glass, a walk through the vineyard, the vat room and the barrel cellar, and end with a seated tasting in a room with picture windows facing the vineyard and the hill; what changes is the wines poured and the length, from an hour and a half to two hours. Book through the website form, by WhatsApp or by email; for larger groups a private visit is arranged. Minors may accompany an adult but do not enter the tasting room, and only service animals are admitted. Parking is free. The wines are sold in the winery's own shop, which also offers gourmet products, and in its online shop, bws.cl. It also arranges events at the winery and corporate visits, on request. No restaurant or accommodation is advertised.