Fundo Los Nichos

The winery

Fundo Los Nichos is in the hamlet of the same name, about 3.5 km south of Pisco Elqui on Ruta D-485, on the way to Horcón, in the upper Elqui. It is first and foremost a pisco distillery: it has been running since 1868 and presents itself as the oldest active pisco distillery in Chile. It was founded by José Dolores Rodríguez Callejas, who according to the house's own history started out making artisanal sweet wine. His son, Rigoberto Rodríguez Rodríguez, built the Retiro canal to irrigate the vines and turned the underground cellar into a meeting place for friends and long evenings of conversation: he opened niches in its walls to store bottles from the best vintages, set one aside for each friend and dedicated verses to them, which still hang beside the alcoves. That is where the name comes from. The family is now in its fifth generation at the helm.

The grapes are its own: more than 34 hectares spread between Pisco Elqui and Horcón, planted with the pisco varieties Pedro Jiménez, Moscatel de Alejandría, Moscatel Rosada, Moscatel de Austria and Torontel. Distillation is still done in traditional stills, and the house bottles two lines: Fundo Los Nichos, fruity in aroma and designed for cocktails (35% and 40% ABV), and Espíritu de Elqui, which is aged in wood (Reservado 40% and Gran Pisco 45%) and won a gold medal at the 2018 Spirits Selection competition. Alongside the pisco, the winery keeps up its traditional sweet wines, which are offered for tasting on the visit; since the house neither publishes their labels nor sells them online, ask about them in the shop.

The distillery opens every day from 10:00 to 18:15. Guided visits last about half an hour, leave at 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00 depending on guide availability and cannot be booked: just arrive half an hour early. The tour goes through the plant, the still room, the cellars and the underground vault of the niches, and ends with a tasting of pisco and sweet wine; press reports from 2025 and 2026 give an admission price of CLP 3,000 per person. Only groups of more than ten people book, by email. On site there is a shop and the Cafetería 1868, with breakfasts, empanadas, sweets, coffee and pisco sour; pets are welcome and there is parking. You can get there by car, on the buses that go up the valley or by bike.