Observatorio Tagua Tagua

The winery

The Observatorio Tagua Tagua is a rare case on the map of Chilean wine: it was an astronomy center first and a small winery second. It is run by Ian Hutcheon, an English physicist who arrived in Chile more than 25 years ago and learned the craft working at wineries in the area. According to press reports of the time, he opened the observatory in 2007 in Tunca Arriba, San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, about 120 km south of Santiago, and in 2009 he bought the Tremonte winery, in the Cachapoal Valley. From there came the Cabernet Sauvignon of the 2010 harvest that gave birth to Meteorito, a wine that in 2012 went around the world as a curiosity and drew journalists all the way to Tunca Arriba.

The house presents its labels as wines born of astronomy. Meteorito is a Cabernet Sauvignon aged 12 months in French oak barrels, one of them with a meteorite inside. Taste the Stars, a blend of Carménère and Merlot, spends at least 30 days exposed to the waves of Jupiter turned into sound. Atrapacielo is a late harvest Moscatel of an intense blue color, with about 12 degrees of alcohol and 75 grams of sugar per liter; Hutcheon attributed that color to blue spirulina in a 2022 interview, although an earlier winery data sheet explained it with Syrah pomace. Its catalog has also included the late harvest Vino del Sol, the Diamante Loco blend and the Gran Reserva Montecruz. The wines are bought at the observatory's shop and in its online store, with the blue wine Atrapacielo at CLP 10,990 and Meteorito at CLP 14,990; there are also two-bottle packs on Mercado Libre.

The visit is at night and always with a booking. It begins with a welcome glass of Meteorito or Atrapacielo, or of Jugo Neptuniano for those who do not drink wine, and goes on with an astronomy talk, telescope observation in the courtyard, a real meteorite in your hand, the Domo de Ondas (Wave Dome), where the wines exposed to the vibrations of the cosmos are shown, and a screening in the AstroDomo 3D. It lasts about two hours, and it helps to know that you come here for the sky: the published program includes no tour of vineyards or winery. Dates are announced on Instagram; in the summer of 2026 there were sessions for weeks on end, and in fall and winter, occasional nights. By day there are family visits to the AstroKidz Space Centre, with no wine.