Viña Khirimarca

The winery

Viña Khirimarca is the project of the Pérez-Kucharevic family in El Queñe, a rural area of the municipality of Salamanca, in the Choapa Valley. It began in 2015, when Carlos Pérez and his wife Veronika Kucharevic, who came from Russia with her family's winemaking tradition, released their first production from the plot they own at the foot of El Queñe hill. The property covers about 10 hectares, half of them planted with vines, and the family takes part in much of the work, harvest included. Khirimarca is also one of the six wineries that make up the Cooperativa de Vinos del Choapa, the valley's wine cooperative formed in 2018.

The project revolves around Pedro Jiménez, a traditional grape of northern Chile closely tied to pisco, which the family set out to bring back as a wine grape. Its wines are artisanal: they ferment with the grapes' own yeasts, without chemical additives according to the winery, and age in 225-liter French and American oak barrels, kept in a brick cellar with earthen walls that the family calls its cave. The winery's website presents a Reserva and a Premium from the 2015 vintage and two varietals, one of them white, but publishes no prices and has no online shop. Besides wine, the family makes artisanal chocolates, jams and other sweets.

The winery receives visitors by prior booking only. According to Enoturismo Chile, it is open Monday to Sunday between 9:00 and 20:00 with guided tours for small groups through the vineyard and the winery, ending with a tasting, and offers guiding in Spanish, English, Russian, Polish and German. No prices are published: visits and wine purchases are arranged directly with Carlos Pérez at +56 9 8527 9000 or carlos@maping.cl. No restaurant or accommodation is announced. The plot is beside Ruta D-825, less than 3 km south of Salamanca's main square.