Viña Falernia

The winery

Falernia grew out of the meeting of two cousins from Trentino, in northern Italy. Aldo Olivier Gramola arrived in Chile in 1951, aged 12, with his family, one of some 200 Italian families that settled in the La Serena and Coquimbo area at the time. The Oliviers started out growing vegetables; once established in El Tambo, Aldo planted pisco grapes from 1972 and built his own pisco distillery. In 1995 he reconnected with his cousin Giorgio Flessati, a winemaker trained at San Michele all'Adige with experience in Italy, France and Australia, and together they shaped the project: the winery was founded in 1998 and was among the first to make fine wines in the Elqui Valley, some 520 km north of Santiago. Flessati still heads the winemaking. The winery, its walls clad in wood, stands at the end of the Puclaro reservoir, beside Ruta 41 between La Serena and Vicuña; it has capacity for 4.5 million liters, the harvest is done by hand in 15 kg crates, and the estate holds the Vinos de Chile sustainability certification.

Its roughly 160 hectares of vines, plus another 140 belonging to the Olivier family, are spread across four very different zones. Titón, at 350 m and just 18 km from the Pacific, wakes to fog and a cool breeze, and gives Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pedro Ximénez, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Puclaro surrounds the winery at 515 m, with a drier, warmer climate for Syrah, Sangiovese, Pedro Ximénez and Viognier. Pedriscal, near Vicuña, grows on the old stony bed of the Elqui River with Syrah, Malbec, Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon, and Huanta, an old vineyard between 1,700 and 2,070 m, contributes Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel Rosada. As there is no phylloxera in the valley, the vines are planted on their own roots, and with barely 25 to 30 mm of rain a year everything is drip-irrigated. The range is broad: the Falernia Reserva and Gran Reserva lines, the Single Vineyard wines such as the Titón Syrah, the Pedriscal Carménère or the Number One blend, and the Antakari, Alta Tierra, Elki, Elqui River, Donna Maria and Tierra Seca brands. Among its rarities are a Carménère Gran Reserva made partly from dried grapes, orange wines of Pedro Ximénez and of Viognier, a Moscato Giallo and a sweet Late Harvest of Moscatel Rosada. In 2026 its Syrah Titón Single Vineyard 2019 scored 95 points and a double gold at the Gilbert & Gaillard International Challenge.

The winery does not publish a visitor program on its website. According to its listing with Sernatur Coquimbo, the regional office of Chile's national tourism service, the tour passes through a Syrah vineyard and the winery and ends with a tasting of premium wines; it is for groups of up to eight people, runs on weekends at fixed times and has to be booked by phone at least two weeks in advance, so confirm before you go. To buy wine, the family's shop, Papayas Olivier, is at kilometer 51 of Ruta 41, about 700 meters from the winery, and opens every day: 10:00 to 18:30 in winter and 9:30 to 20:00 in summer. There is no restaurant or accommodation at the winery. Viña Mayu, the project Mauro Olivier started in 2005 with the Mayu and Aymura brands, is listed at the same address as the winery and does not publish visits of its own.