Viña Echeverría

The winery

The story of Viña Echeverría has two branches. In 1930, French engineer Roger Piffre de Vauban arrived in the Curicó Valley and planted ungrafted vines of French origin at La Estancia, a property in Molina, alongside a cellar equipped with machinery brought from France. In the early 1950s his son-in-law Roberto Echeverría Rubio, from a family of Basque origin settled in Chile since the 1750s, established another vineyard and another winery in the same town. His son, Roberto Echeverría, an agronomist with a doctorate in economics from Cornell, returned to Chile in 1979 after eight years at the World Bank and found the industry in deep crisis: he brought the family property together, replanted and built a new winery. The first wines reached foreign markets in the early 1990s. The winery remains in family hands, and Roberto Echeverría Jr., head winemaker since 2001, has run it since 2009.

The estate, known as Viñedos La Estancia, has 65 hectares at 243 meters above sea level, on alluvial clay-loam soils, with flood irrigation and hand harvesting. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc grow there. The winery describes its farming as organic, though it publishes no organic certification, and displays the Certified Sustainable Wine of Chile seal. Its catalog runs from the Valle Dorado, Reserva and Gran Reserva lines to a special selection led by Cabernet Sauvignon such as Family Reserva, from Curicó itself, and Founder's Selection and Limited Edition, from Alto Maipo grapes, plus a botrytized late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc and sparkling wines, among them one made by the traditional method. The newest face of the house is No Es Pituko, a natural line that ferments with native yeasts and is bottled without added sulfites or filtration; it includes Viognier, Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc from the valley, a País rosé from the Maule and a Sauvignon Blanc orange wine. The cellar preserves an old hall turned into a museum, with original 30,000-liter raulí (native beech) vats and a French press from the 1930s, next to the steel tanks and more than a thousand barrels.

The winery receives visitors by appointment only. Write to info@echewine.com or use the form on its website, and on the No Es Pituko page they ask you to call before coming (+56 9 9887 5991 or +56 9 7478 2822). It publishes no tours, prices or visiting hours, so the program is agreed directly with the house; nor does it list a restaurant, accommodation or online store. It is about 200 kilometers south of Santiago: from Ruta 5 take the Molina exit, drive about 2 kilometers east and, just before the railway line, turn left; the winery is on the left, some 400 to 500 meters further on. You can also arrive on the Santiago–Chillán train as far as Molina station, very close to the property, and the winery offers to pick up those who have announced their visit, though not every train stops there: confirm the timetable with EFE.