Neyen de Apalta

The winery

Neyen de Apalta occupies the eastern end of the Apalta D.O. (appellation), the small horseshoe-shaped valley that opens onto the Tinguiririca River within the Colchagua Valley. Its adobe winery with a tiled roof, built around 1890, is considered the oldest in the valley, and beside it grow the Cabernet Sauvignon vines brought from France in 1889, later joined by Carménère. The present estate was put together by Raúl Rojas in 1970, and the Neyen wine began to be exported with the 2003 vintage. Since 2010 the winery has been tied to Viñedos Veramonte, and today both belong to the Spanish group González Byass, the Jerez house behind Tío Pepe. The name comes from a local tale: the people of the place called the force they felt in this land Neyen, the spirit of Apalta.

On the upper slopes of the estate, granite soils and volcanic material predominate; on the flat, the old alluvial terraces of the Tinguiririca provide well-drained clays and sands. For more than a decade the vineyard has been farmed regeneratively, organically and biodynamically, with organic certifications from Chile, the United States and the European Union and the Demeter seal: the winery makes its own compost, follows the biodynamic calendar and lets sheep graze between the rows. The flagship wine, Neyen Espíritu de Apalta, blends Cabernet Sauvignon and Carménère from century-old vines; alongside it are a limited-edition old-vine Malbec, the Primus line, which comes from a pergola-trained (parrón) Cabernet block over eighty years old and from the slopes, the Tesis de Primus single-plot wines and Ancestral, an ungrafted Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentations are carried out with native yeasts in open tanks, and aging takes place in foudres and French oak barrels.

Visits are open every day by advance booking and last around an hour and a half. They begin at the entrance to the old winery, pass through an aroma garden where you learn to recognize the scents found in the wines, walk among the century-old vines and the Cabernet Sauvignon pergola and end with a tasting inside the winery. There are three versions depending on what is tasted: a selection of Primus and Neyen, two vintages of Neyen, or a vertical of three vintages. Tours in Spanish depart in the morning and those in English at midday and in the afternoon; they are booked online, by WhatsApp or by email, with a minimum of two people. Under-18s enter free of charge, though they do not taste, and there is no restaurant at the winery: the tours do not include food.