Viña Koyle

The winery

Koyle was born in 2006, when Alfonso Undurraga Mackenna bought the Los Lingues estate, at the foot of the Andes in Alto Colchagua, and began planting vines on its stony slopes with his son Cristóbal. The family comes from a long tradition: it is the same one that founded Viña Undurraga in the 19th century, and with Koyle the sixth generation kept making wine under another name, taken from a purple native flower that grows beside the vineyards. Today the winery is in the hands of the family's new generation: Alfonso is the director, Cristóbal the technical director and winemaker, Rebeca handles the finances and Max drives the commercial side. Cristóbal was singled out by Decanter magazine in 2018 among the young winemakers renewing the region's wine.

The Los Lingues estate has a Mediterranean foothill climate, cooled by the winds that come down from the mountains, and is laid out on three terraces of clay soils with basalt rocks of volcanic origin: the lowest is the most clayey and fertile, and on the highest the bedrock appears at 20 to 50 centimeters down; the plots for the top-end wines lie between 400 and 500 m above sea level. In 2009 the property began its transition to biodynamic farming and today holds the Demeter, Ecocert (organic), vegan and Non GMO seals; the grapes are hand-picked and ferment with native yeasts. From the middle and upper terraces come the Royale and the Cerro Basalto single-plot wines (a Carménère with Cabernet Franc, a Garnacha and a Mediterranean blend of Monastrell, Garnacha, Cariñena and Syrah), plus Auma, the house icon, a blend of six Bordeaux varieties whose name comes from the initials of Alfonso Undurraga Mackenna. The range is completed by the Gran Reserva Orgánico line, with Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, and the Sauvignon Blancs of the Costa line, from a vineyard in Paredones a few kilometers from the sea. Los Lingues has been a Denominación de Origen (appellation) since 2018.

Visits are booked in advance by email (turismo@koyle.cl) or through the contact form on the website. The tour the winery has offered at Los Lingues starts with a guided walk of about 45 minutes and moderate difficulty among the vines, where the biodynamic management is explained with the Andes as a backdrop, and ends with a tasting accompanied by a cheese board, in three versions: four wines, five wines or a five-course paired tasting. Wear comfortable shoes. Koyle also has a winery in the Angostura area, north of San Fernando and about 10 km from the vineyard, so when booking confirm where the visit begins. There is no restaurant or accommodation; group lunches are arranged directly with the winery.