Viña Doña Aurora

The winery

Viña Doña Aurora is in Santo Toribio, in the dry-farmed interior (secano interior) of Cauquenes, beside Ruta Los Conquistadores Norte and a short distance from the Perquilauquén River. The Abarza family, which dates its arrival in the area to 1746, through the port of Constitución, devoted this land to livestock and traditional crops until 1997, when it planted Chardonnay, at first as a hobby; then came Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère and Syrah, and water had to be brought from the river over more than three kilometers. The name joins two memories: Aurora, the wife of Hermógenes Abarza, and Fundo El Peumo, as these lands were called. When the winery speaks of more than a hundred years of history it means that family tradition; the wine project starts in 1997 and is run today by Alexis Abarza and his son Alex Abarza Stark, with José Alexander Vera as winemaker.

It has 35 hectares planted, 30 of them in production, on granitic soils low in organic matter. The estate describes regenerative management, with cover crops, and since 2018 has drawn power from 20 solar panels; it publishes no organic certification. It makes its wines in stainless-steel vats, with a capacity of 200,000 liters, and ages wines such as the Stark Haus Carignan in oak barrels. Its labels speak of the place and the family: El Peuco, named for the hawk that circles over the fields, brings together Chardonnay, a rosé, Carménère and Pinot Noir; Cerro Name takes the name of the highest point in the micro-valley; Stark Haus, with Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon among others, joins Ingrid Stark's surname with the German word for house; and Meico, made from País, remembers a beloved local character of the 1940s and 1950s. There are also a Chardonnay Late Harvest and the Doña Aurora Blend. The wines are sold in the winery's online store, from CLP 9,000, at the cellar door on the property and at La Cava, a liquor store in the city of Cauquenes that the website names as its retail outlet.

The official website offers two tours: a full tour of vineyard and cellar, and one of the cellar alone. You walk among the vines, learn about its growing practices and enter the cellar, where murals by Cauquenes painter Jorge Salazar tell the story of wine. The winery also points to the old beams and the glazed door of the tasting room, and to a brick tower in the fields that it presents as an old watchtower. In 2025 it won the Maule regional category of Enoturismo a Escala Humana (Human-Scale Wine Tourism) at the Premios Enoturismo Chile awards. It also mentions cellar tastings, Sunset Wine and evening events, and announces light-aircraft flyovers, without publishing prices or dates. The booking calendar on its website showed no available dates in November 2026, so write by WhatsApp to +56 9 3869 1627 to arrange the visit and confirm prices. No restaurant or accommodation is published on the property; the restaurant the winery points to, Mr Bale, is in the city of Cauquenes, about 31 km away in a straight line.