Chateau Potrero Seco

The winery

Chateau Potrero Seco is the project of a family with roots in Italy's Piedmont: by the winery's own account, the Vercellinos have been making wine for five generations. Their descendants in Chile planted 25 ha of French varieties in Santa Ana, in Talagante province, at the end of the last century, and for years sold the grapes to other wineries in the area. Later they built a winery of their own, and in 2015 they presented their reserva wines at the Feria Chile Lindo in Vitacura. Everything revolves around an Italian-style house of brick and tile, its walls covered in creepers, surrounded by lawns and with a pond among the gardens. The winery's contact is Jorge Chermac, its owner.

The vineyard grows on rocky alluvial soils of the Maipo basin, where the Pacific breeze widens the gap between day and night temperatures. The estate began with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carménère and Cabernet Franc, and later added Syrah, Petit Verdot, a blend and a rosé. As its website described it, the clusters are picked and sorted by hand, fermented in Italian Ganimede tanks, which use the CO2 from fermentation for pump-overs, and rested in French oak barrels; irrigation is by drip and harvest wastewater is treated in a wetland. The winery describes its farming as organic, though it publishes no certificate. Its recent labels carry the name Reserva Privada, with Carolina Zapata as winemaker: in December 2025, in a post the winery shared, Tim Atkin MW showed the Petit Verdot 2024 and the Red Blend 2022 among the wines he singled out from a MaipOrigen tasting in Melipilla.

To visit, arrange it in advance: the website is under maintenance and there is currently no published offer or pricing. Enoturismo Chile lists it with tours with tasting, general and for groups, and a wine shop, Monday to Saturday, with 48 hours' notice and service in Spanish, English and Portuguese; confirm with the winery before you go. What does have constant activity is its events center, with weddings and corporate events in the gardens and catering by Cookers, quoted separately. Its wines also turn up at fairs: in 2026 it announced its participation in Bocas Moradas, ExpoVino in Valparaíso and the Día del Vino del Valle del Maipo (Maipo Valley Wine Day) in Santiago. No restaurant open to the public or accommodation is listed.