Cooperativa Agrícola Vitivinícola Loncomilla

The winery

The Cooperativa Agrícola Vitivinícola Loncomilla was founded on 14 January 1959 in San Javier de Loncomilla to support the winegrowing work of its members, and its winery stands on the west bank of the Loncomilla River, beside Ruta L-136. Today it brings together around a hundred producers, the great majority of them small. For decades it sold almost nothing but bulk wine, a business it still keeps; with support from INIA Raihuén and funding from the Maule Regional Government it developed a bottled line to add value to the País grape. The winery can hold more than 22 million liters in stainless-steel and epoxy-lined concrete tanks, and its design makes use of differences in height and of gravity.

The members farm more than 850 hectares, over half of them in the dry-farmed interior (secano interior). País dominates, in old head-trained vines with no posts or wires, on clay-loam soils of granitic and metamorphic origin, with 600 to 700 mm of rain a year. There is also Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Carignan and Carménère, and among the whites Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Semillón, Blanca Ovoide and Torontel. The País Mágico line brings together a reserva, a rosé, a late harvest, a fortified wine and a chicha (a traditional, lightly fermented grape drink) of País; Asoleado, a sweet wine from sun-dried grapes, is also made from this variety, and Ovo is a brut sparkling wine of Blanca Ovoide. Kimche offers varietals and reservas, with a Carignan and a Carménère among its reservas, and San Jorge, varietals. The shop also sells Almaule, the brand of a joint project of Maule producers built around País. The cooperative reports 93 points and the revelation wine award for Asoleado 2018 in Descorchados 2021, and two gold medals at the Catador Wine Awards 2018.

Its website says tours and tastings are booked through the wine shop, but it publishes no program, duration or prices. Enoturismo Chile lists it as open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 19:00 with booking required, while the office hours on the website are 9:00 to 13:30 and 14:30 to 18:00, so call ahead at +56 73 232 2540 or write to cooplonc@cooploncomilla.cl. The wines are bought at that shop, which has offered export overstock, and in the online store, which sells by the case of six bottles. The sources consulted mention no restaurant or accommodation.