Las Araucarias

The winery

Viña Las Araucarias is at kilometer 13 of La Viluma, in the Carmen Alto area of the municipality of Melipilla, a little over an hour from Santiago on Ruta 78. Its vineyard was planted in 1999 by Miguel Ulloa Valenzuela, and its owner, Patricio Ulloa, lives on the property and usually welcomes visitors himself. The family traces its winegrowing tradition back to 1627, to plantings by Francisco Pérez de Valenzuela in the Itata, and later to the Lomas Blancas winery, in the Molina area. The farm is part of what the winery calls the La Viluma ecological reserve, with wetlands, ravines, native forest and trails, between the Pacific and the Coastal Range.

There are 21 ha on a south-facing slope with soil of magmatic origin, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Merlot and Syrah, harvested by hand. The winery states that it is certified organic through Bioaudita and the SAG (Chile's agricultural service), and that it bottles only its own red grapes. The winery building, of stone and reclaimed timber, has eight concrete vats filled by gravity and a room of French barrels, with a production of about 30,000 bottles and fermentations with native yeasts. Alongside the barrel-aged varietals and the Icono Magmático wines is the Al Desnudo line of young wines with no added sulfites, unfiltered and with no time in barrel. They are sold in the winery's online store, by the bottle or by case of six depending on the wine, and also on the property itself.

The winery receives visitors by booking, and its page asks for 24 hours' notice. There are two hour-and-a-half tours of vineyard and winery with a tasting, a shorter cellar-only one designed for couples, a guided tasting that can be held in the restaurant or in the aging cellar, the Crea tu Propio Vino (make your own wine) experience, in which each person blends and bottles their own wine, and a guided walk through the Las Bandurrias ravine, between vineyards and native forest. The La Viluma restaurant operates on the property every day at lunchtime, with wood-fired cooking and vegetables from the organic garden, and is paid for separately from the tours. The place welcomes children and also pets, if you say so when booking, has free parking and offers spaces for weddings and corporate events, with capacity for 120 people.