Viña Maturana (Puente Austral)

The winery

Maturana Winery is the project of brothers José Ignacio and Sebastián Maturana, who decided to devote themselves to their own wines after the 2010 earthquake. José Ignacio, a winemaker, had spent years heading the winemaking team at one of the country's best-known wineries, and Sebastián, a trained chef, runs the commercial side. Their first wine was the MW, a Carménère of which they made some 3,000 bottles in 2011 and which is now the house icon. The winery works two lines: Maturana Wines, signature wines, and Puente Austral, with Reserva Privada, Gran Reserva and Unique Terroir varietals. In 2017 the Círculo de Cronistas Gastronómicos y del Vino (Chile's food and wine writers' circle) distinguished it as best wine project of the year, and the Descorchados 2024 guide named it Revelation Winery.

Their wines come mostly from grapes bought from small growers in different valleys, under long-term agreements and at a price per kilo well above the market rate. In this way they rescue heritage grapes such as Torontel, País, Semillón and San Francisco, some from vines planted between 1910 and 1945, in places as different as Paredones, Litueche and Marchigüe in Colchagua, Loncomilla and San Clemente in the Maule, and Illapel in the Choapa valley. The Naranjo, a Torontel from vines of 1938 that spends close to nine months in contact with its skins inside concrete eggs, is the wine that has made them best known; it is joined by the Parellón from Semillón, the Pa-Tel from País, the Panchita from San Francisco and the MW. In the winery they ferment and age in concrete eggs, clay amphorae (tinajas) and French oak barrels.

The winery is in the Angostura area of San Fernando, about 130 km south of Santiago, beside Ruta I-90-H (the El Tambo road). The Maturana Tours tour lasts close to an hour and a half: it covers the production and barrel rooms, the La Turbina events center and the gardens beside the vineyard, and ends with a tasting of Parellón, Naranjo and MW accompanied by a board of cheeses and nuts. It departs Monday to Saturday at 11:30 am and 3:30 pm, in Spanish or English, for a minimum of two people and always by advance booking by email or WhatsApp. The winery has no restaurant or accommodation; La Turbina is rented for weddings and private events and, on particular dates, hosts the Maturana Sunset, a festival with the house wines, food and live music.