Lugarejo

The winery

Lugarejo began in 2014 as a pastime for Elina Carbonell, a theater designer, and Fernando, a historian, a married couple who wanted something to do together once retirement came. They started with a single barrel of Merlot, and the game kept growing until it became a small family winery in the San Gregorio area of Nancagua, between Santa Cruz and the town. The winery is a wooden building with red doors in the garden of the house, holding a dozen barrels, and produces between 4,000 and 4,500 bottles a year, which the family harvests, vinifies and bottles by hand with children and friends.

In the garden they planted a tiny vineyard, around a tenth of a hectare, with Carménère (2014) and Mourvèdre (2017). The rest of the grapes come from a family farm in Peralillo, planted in 1999, which supplies the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, and from century-old País vines in Paredones. Picking is done early in the morning; some wines ferment with native yeasts, malolactic fermentation happens in spring inside the barrels, and the reds spend at least a year in used oak, unfined and unfiltered and with a low dose of sulfites before bottling. The range includes Merlot, their first wine, a Merlot Crianza Especial with two years in barrel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Carménère, Mourvèdre, País and the Zafarrancho blend; every bottle is labeled by hand, numbered and sealed with wax. Decanter gave the Merlot 2016 92 points.

The visit is homespun and personal: visitors are received by appointment only and hosted by Elina or Fernando, who show the garden vineyard and the little winery and serve a tasting of their reds. It is a peaceful place where children are welcome. Arrange it by WhatsApp, the same channel through which the family sells its wines with home delivery.