Casas del Bosque

The winery

Casas del Bosque was born in 1993, when Juan Cúneo Solari, the son of Italian immigrants, made good on his idea of owning a vineyard in the Casablanca Valley. He chose the Las Dichas area, in the westernmost and coolest part of the valley, about 18 kilometers from the Pacific as the crow flies, when the zone was only just being planted. The name recalls the pine and olive groves and the small white adobe houses that stood on the land. The winery remains in family hands, with Juan Cúneo as chairman and Giorgianna Cúneo as director, and its winemaking is led by the Italian Alberto Guolo, who arrived in 2017 and is now technical director.

The estate vineyard covers 126 hectares given over entirely to cool-climate varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Malbec and Cabernet Franc, on soils of granitic origin. The breeze and fogs rolling in from the ocean stretch out ripening and give fresh, aromatic wines with marked acidity; Cabernet Sauvignon and Carménère, which need more warmth, come from vineyards in Maipo, Colchagua and Cachapoal. The range runs from Collection and Botanic Series to Handcrafted and the single-parcel line Pequeñas, and includes the traditional-method sparkling Bo Extra Brut, a Riesling Late Harvest and two icons: La Trampa, a blend of Syrah, Malbec and Pinot Noir from Casablanca, and Gran Bosque, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Maipo. The vineyard holds sustainability certification and all the wines are vegan-friendly.

The winery welcomes visitors every day and has appeared on The World's 50 Best Vineyards list every year since 2019. Tours and tastings, lasting 30 to 60 minutes, are bought online on the winery's website from CLP 27,000 per person; there are also experiences such as Winemaker for a Day, bike rides, a picnic beside the Tranque Los Olivos reservoir (October to May), the Harvest Experience during the grape harvest and the nine-course lunch at Casa Mirador, a house on a hilltop in the vineyard next to a century-old espino tree. For eating there are the restaurant Tanino, open every day, Botánico, which cooks with what the estate's kitchen garden yields, and Wine Bar 242, which needs no booking; the Wine Shop sells all the lines. Tours and tastings are for adults over 18: children can only join private tours, free of charge up to age 12, and have a kids' menu and games.