Viña Don Melchor

The winery

Don Melchor was a wine before it was a winery. In 1984 the French enologist Émile Peynaud tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon of Puente Alto and proposed his collaborator Jacques Boissenot to lead the project; the first vintage was 1987. Enrique Tirado has been its sole winemaker since 1997 and today is also its CEO and technical director, working with Eric Boissenot, Jacques's son. In 2019 the project was presented as Viña Don Melchor, a subsidiary of Viña Concha y Toro. Its 2021 vintage was named Wine of the Year 2024 by Wine Spectator.

The vineyard and the visit are not in the same place. The Viñedo Don Melchor lies in the municipality of Puente Alto, on the north bank of the Maipo River, about 4 km from the house. According to the winery, it is 125 hectares at 650 m above sea level, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot, divided into seven parcels and 151 micro-parcels. From there come Don Melchor and the limited series Las Parcelas, which in each edition showcases a single parcel: DM/01 in the 2022 vintage and DM/05 in the 2023. The winery also has the Viñedo Solar, a 0.16-hectare trial planted in 2018 in a radial pattern to study the effect of row orientation and planting density. The published programs do not include a vineyard tour.

The visit takes place at Casa Don Melchor, in Pirque, the former summer house of the Concha y Toro family; the house and its park have been a National Historic Monument since 1971. It is on the same grounds as Concha y Toro's Centro del Vino, with the same address and, according to the links on its website, the same entrance via Av. Virginia Subercaseaux 210. But its experiences are purchased separately, on the Don Melchor website, and its programs mention neither the museum nor the Bodega Subterránea Casillero del Diablo. All of them include a guided walk through the house, the Sala de Colección, with every vintage since 1987, and the boutique. The entry-level option is the Don Melchor Tasting Experience, in a shared group, at CLP 160,000 per person; the Collector's Experience offers a similar tasting in private; Top of the World focuses on the 2021 vintage; The Art of Blending invites you to build your own blend from the seven parcels; and A Journey of Excellence is a vertical tasting of six vintages between 1988 and 2021, at CLP 1,600,000 per person. The paired lunch is served in the dining room or on the terrace. Book online; the terms ask for at least 24 hours' notice and refund the full payment if you cancel 8 days or more ahead, while with 72 hours or less you can only reschedule, for a fee. Visits run Monday through Saturday between 9:00 and 18:00, with no Sundays or public holidays. Only those over 18 are admitted, except at lunch, and pets are not allowed. The wines are sold at the house's shop and at Descorcha, the group's online store.