Viña de Neira (Bandido Neira)

The winery

Viña de Neira is the project of the family of that name in the Altos de Guarilihue, in the Coastal Range of the Itata Valley. Its brand, Bandido Neira, recalls José Miguel Neira, the guerrilla fighter of Chile's War of Independence: as the winery itself told it on its old website, before he was executed by firing squad in 1817 he ordered his family to flee south, and they settled between the Itata and Biobío rivers to carry on with their crops and their wines. The winery speaks of more than 150 years of tradition. Today the wines are made by Felipe Neira, the winery's account signs off as “the Neira brothers,” and in 2025 they restored a 3,000-liter foudre that, as they tell it, has been in use for three generations.

The vineyard is dry-farmed and has old vines: the technical sheet for its Cinsault 2016 speaks of own-rooted plants 60 years old, at 250 m above sea level, 25 km from the Pacific and 8 km from the Itata River, hand-harvested, fermented with native yeasts and unfiltered, and the South America Wine Guide mentions País more than a hundred years old planted by Felipe's great-great-grandfather. The winery belongs to Sur Natural, the natural wine association of Itata and Biobío. Cinsault is its main line, and alongside it the house has made País, Moscatel de Alejandría, a Pinot Noir rosé, a brut sparkling Cinsault and late harvest; in 2021 it planted Semillón. The cellar works by gravity and on power from its own solar panels, and part of the Moscatel is plowed by horse. The Cinsault 2023 has a story of its own: it was born of grapes that survived the mega-fire of that summer, after three weeks of ash and temperatures close to 40 °C.

The winery receives visitors by appointment but publishes no program, prices or hours: the surest way is to message it on Instagram at @bandidoneira, because its old website and email no longer work. The property, in the municipality of Ránquil and near the border with Coelemu, has two winemaking cellars, a tasting room, a dome with a wooden hot tub and a forest with birdwatching spots; in 2022 it organized a tour that joined its wines with dance and nature, which it called eco-wine tourism. More than a decade ago its website also described a manor house, a museum of artisanal wine and an adobe cellar, and there is no confirmation that they are part of the visit today. No open online shop with its wines is published: to buy them, ask the winery itself, which in September 2025, for example, offered them at the UCSC university in Concepción.