Viña Doña Elita

The winery

Viña Doña Elita is the project of Elita Fierro, a winegrower from Ránquil, in the dry-farmed country of the province of Itata. She first worked the grapes with her father and today carries on the trade with her family. For years the harvest was sold as fruit or as bulk wine, until low prices led her to bottle under her own label: according to a 2019 press report, she made that decision in 2013, with advice from the municipality's Local Development Program. “I got fed up, because we were giving the grapes away,” she said herself on receiving her 2025 award.

It is a small winery, of about two hectares according to the producer in 2019. The Universidad del Bío-Bío's catalog of Itata wineries describes century-old País and Moscatel de Alejandría, plus others such as Malbec, from which she makes reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines. Her wines include Cinsault, Malbec, Cabernet, Moscatel de Alejandría, a rosé and a traditional-method Brut Cinsault, of which she made some 1,300 bottles in the 2018 harvest. At the Catad'Or World Wine Awards in November 2025, the Doña Elita Cinsault 2022 received a Grand Gold Medal and the trophy for Best Ancestral Wine. Earlier, in the 2019 edition, the Brut Cinsault 2018 took silver and the award for Best Ancestral Sparkling Wine, and in 2021 her Moscatel de Alejandría won first place in its category at INDAP's Itata wine competition.

The only published way to get to know her wines is a wine shop in the area of the Ñipas railway station, at Ramón León Luco 230, which appears in the Universidad del Bío-Bío catalog. No hours, prices, visits or tastings are published, so call or write before you go: +56 9 3538 4343 or vinosdonaelita@gmail.com. The winery has also taken its bottles to shows, such as the Expo Vinos Ñuble 2023 in Ñuñoa. No online shop is published.