Viña Laura Hartwig

The winery

The Laura Hartwig story begins with the Santa Laura estate, which Osvaldo Bisquertt bought in 1928 on the outskirts of Santa Cruz and which his daughter Laura inherited in 1966. Her husband, Alejandro Hartwig, added neighboring plots and kept the farm going with crops and dairying until the family moved to Canada in 1971. Ten years of travel and courses turned him into a serious wine enthusiast, and on their return the couple set themselves an active retirement project: in 1978 they planted the first Bordeaux varieties and for years sold the grapes to big wineries. In 1994 they built their own winery, and in 1995 the first wine bearing Laura's name came out, a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva. Today their children run it, with Alejandro Hartwig as general manager and viticulturist, Cristián Hartwig as president and Matías Hartwig in charge of sales and tourism; the head winemaker is Rodrigo Yavar. The family was one of the six wineries that founded the Ruta del Vino de Colchagua (the Colchagua wine route) in 1996, and since 2014 it has been part of the Movimiento de Viñateros Independientes (MOVI, the independent winemakers' movement). The love of horses, inherited from grandfather Osvaldo, is still present on the estate.

The 40 planted hectares sit on flat, deep soils formed by slow lake sedimentation, clay loam at the surface and sandy below. There are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Carménère, Malbec, Syrah and Petit Verdot, farmed with low-impact viticulture though without certification. The winery, in the traditional architecture of the area, started with a capacity of 140,000 liters and today reaches 390,000; it vinifies in stainless steel, clay vessels and cement eggs, and ages mostly in French oak barrels in a room with natural temperature and humidity. Production runs at around 10,000 to 12,000 cases a year, spread across several lines: Laluca, young unoaked wines; Single Vineyard, of Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon; Selección del Viticultor, of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot; Edición de Familia, a blend from the oldest vines; and Laura, the icon wine, a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot made only in exceptional years. The house also makes a sparkling wine, Flor de la Pluma.

The winery receives visitors Tuesday to Sunday and is a few minutes from the center of Santa Cruz. There are three tours with online booking: the Premium, about 75 minutes, covers the vineyard, the winery and the barrel room and ends with three wines, among them Edición de Familia, and a cheese board; the Connoisseur adds the icon Laura to a tasting of four wines; and the Vertical, for a maximum of six people, compares the 2017, 2018 and 2019 vintages of Laura with local goat cheeses. The wine shop sells all the house wines, and cheese boards can be ordered. The winery has no restaurant or accommodation, but it borders the Hotel Terra Viña and the restaurants Vino Bello and Prapes. Under-18s enter free, without tasting, and pets are allowed only in the outdoor areas.