Viña Los Quiscos

The winery

Viña Los Quiscos was born in 2005 at the hands of Ximena Arias and winemaker Juan Carlos Faúndez, with organic production as the starting point. It is in El Escorial, in the municipality of Paine, in the part of the Maipo Valley they call Maipo Alto, with the Andean foothills in front; the vines for its main wine grow at about 490 m above sea level, on alluvial soils. The company behind the brand is Abtao, the name that signs its logo, and besides bottling for Chile it exports bulk wine.

Its most personal wine is Los Quiscos, launched in 2010: a blend of nine grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Syrah, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Cariñena, Garnacha, Mourvèdre and Petite Sirah), with 60% of the wine spending 13 months in French barrels and then a year in bottle. In 2017 it added Trancoyán, a País from the Itata Valley that comes from dry-farmed vines more than 150 years old, in the Coastal Range. The Red, La Luz Blu and La Luz Black lines complete the list with Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Syrah and Chardonnay, largely from the Maipo. According to its website, last updated in 2024, the company sources grapes from valleys ranging from Aconcagua to Malleco, makes its wines in five rented wineries in the Maipo, Casablanca, Curicó and Itata, produces organic as well as conventional wines, and holds organic certifications for the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and Chile.

Visits are arranged in advance, by direct message on Instagram, WhatsApp or email. It is a guided walk among the vines, explaining the character of the grapes and the organic farming, and ends with a tasting accompanied by a cheese and charcuterie board. If you want to make a day of it, you can stay for a home-cooked lunch with local produce, with vegan options. No prices or online store are published: to buy the wines, the direct route is to ask the winery, which has a wine shop according to Enoturismo Chile, or to look for them at the Santiago wine fairs, where it usually sets up its stand.