Viña Lomas de Llahuén

The winery

Lomas de Llahuén is in the Llahuén area, in the dry-farmed hills of Portezuelo, in the Itata Valley. It was founded in 1986 by brothers Francisco and Gustavo Riffo, at a time of heavy unemployment in the area and with no capital, land of their own or infrastructure: the work came from wheat and lentil crops, and the first wines were sold in demijohns along roads, in shops and at markets across the south. Over the years the family came to value its old vines and the País grape, and today it reports more than 20 hectares of its own vineyards in production, with the young generation already part of the project.

The vineyard is centered on País vines more than a hundred years old, dry-farmed (the winery speaks of close to 200 years for those of its Pipeño), alongside Cinsault, Moscatel de Alejandría, Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery presents itself as a producer of natural, low-intervention wines. The one-liter Pipeño País, a rustic country wine, is kept in pipas, casks of Chilean wood, and Dama Juana is another take on País, from a higher block. The line continues with Cinsault del Cerro, A Pelo (Moscatel de Alejandría), De Fino no tiene Na o Si? (Cabernet Sauvignon with 80 months in old barrels) and the blends Desorden de Tintos and Desorden de Blancos. Its wines are exported: it has been six years in the United States with José Pastor Selections and also reaches Brazil and Russia. In Chile they are sold at Punto Pipeño, the shop linked to the winery, with outlets on Ruta 5 Sur near San Carlos (km 370 and 371) and online sales; Enoturismo Chile also lists a wine shop at the winery itself.

Visits are by booking and revolve around the winery, the hillside vineyards, the country kitchen and the Mirador de Llahuén lookout. The website publishes three tours: Tour Dama Juana (2.5 hours, from 5 people), A Pelo (4 hours, from 8 people) and Mirador del Valle, a full day from 9:00 to 17:00 with a barbecue lunch and an open bar of pipeño; published prices run from CLP 24,990 to 49,900 plus VAT. Book by WhatsApp or Instagram. At the Premios Enoturismo Chile 2025, the country's wine tourism awards, the winery won Best Wine Tourism Experience in the Ñuble Region and received a special recognition for its food-and-wine offering. In September 2026 it reported building a new gravity-fed fermentation yard, also designed with wine tourism in mind. Enoturismo Chile also mentions horseback rides, night tastings, picnics, stargazing, “make your own wine” and events such as the Fiesta de la Vendimia (harvest festival), which the winery's own page does not detail: ask about them when booking.