Viña Cacique Maravilla

The winery

Cacique Maravilla lies about two kilometers from Yumbel, on the road to Rere, in the dry-farmed interior of Biobío and some 50 kilometers from the Pacific. The Gutiérrez family has lived on this land since the eighteenth century: by its own account, Francisco Gutiérrez Gutiérrez arrived from the Canary Islands around 1750 and earned the respect of the local Mapuche, who nicknamed him Cacique Maravilla. The winery dates the origin of its vineyard to 1776 and presents itself as "Viña 33," the number on an old stamp for its pipeño, the young country wine of the south. Today it is run by Manuel Moraga Gutiérrez, the seventh generation of the family and the first to bottle under his own label; before him, the grapes and wine were sold in bulk to other wineries.

There are some 16 hectares of old dry-farmed vines, unirrigated, with País vines more than two centuries old alongside Moscatel de Alejandría, Torontel, Corinto, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard is worked without chemicals or fertilizers, plowed with horses and weeded by hand in spring, and the harvest is manual. In the cellar the wine is barely touched: the grapes are foot-trodden and ferment spontaneously in open lagares (treading vats) of raulí wood, move by gravity to the vats and are bottled young, unfiltered and with no added sulfites. The range includes the Pipeño, a one-liter País to drink fresh; an orange wine from Moscatel de Alejandría with a long maceration on its skins; the pet-nats Gutiflower, Chacolí rosé and Chacolí Negro; and a few Cabernet Sauvignon reds. The wines are exported to importers in the United States, Italy, South Korea and Japan, and there is a wine shop on the farm. Around the vineyard are wetlands where swans and wild ducks arrive every year.

The winery receives visitors every day from 9:00 to 17:00, always by booking and for groups of up to 15 people. There is a ninety-minute tour of the vineyard, the old vines, the wine cave and the cellar with the winegrower; a tasting of around two hours with up to eight wines and an aperitif; and a full four-and-a-half-hour experience that adds the underground cave, the tasting, lunch or dinner and a bottle to take home. It also offers horseback rides, cabin accommodation, group lunches and private dinners, but has no restaurant open to the public. Book through the website form, by WhatsApp at +56 9 8850 4308 or by email at caciquemaravilla@gmail.com.