Viña Huelquén

The winery

Viña Huelquén is the project of the Ravenna family, of Italian origin, which arrived in Chile in the mid-20th century and went into cattle and farming in the Maipo. According to the history the winery used to publish on its website, a first attempt with a small cellar in the early 1980s was cut short after an accident, and the current project began in 1992, when Francisco Ravenna Zamora partnered with the agronomists Víctor Pinto López and Sergio Gajardo Romo and planted the first 35 ha of Cabernet Sauvignon at Fundo Cachantún, in Huelquén, in the municipality of Paine. The winery was built in 1995 and the first bottled wines came out in 1999. In 2008 the website declared 85 ha in production, a cellar of 3 million liters in steel tanks and some 12,000 cases a year, with 90% going to export.

The winery says it has farmed its vineyards organically since 2000 and certified its wines as organic from the 2004 harvest onward, with native yeasts and separate vinification. The latest certificate shown on its website, from Ecocert for the Brazilian market, expired in September 2015, so it cannot be said to still be in force. Its published range brings together the Huelken Carménère Reserva and four Cabernet Sauvignons: Huelken Premium, Q, Amicus and Invidia, the last from a selection of blocks at Fundo Cachantún. In the early 2000s its wines won medals at the Catad'Or (gold, 2003), the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (silver, 2003) and the Challenge International du Vin (silver, 2004).

The winery once received tourists: in 2015 it advertised daily tours of the vineyard and cellar, with a tasting from the tanks and a cheese board in the manor house. Since 2018 its tourism page has announced only “Pronto nuevos tours” (new tours coming soon), and today it publishes no visits, prices, store or points of sale. Before going or looking for its wines, ask directly at +56 9 9631 5764 or huelquen@huelquen.com. The entrance is at Camino Padre Hurtado 4595, in Huelquén; the website notes that there are direct buses to Huelquén from the Terminal San Borja in Santiago.