Viña Panguilemu

The winery

Viña Panguilemu is on the estate of the same name, in the hills on the eastern side of the coastal range, about 7 km from Portezuelo. Vines have grown on this land for a long time: a 1923 register of estates, cited in a study in the journal Idesia, notes that Panguilemu, Los Pinos and Viñas Viejas, under one owner, totaled 115 hectares of País. The current story begins in 1951, when the Italian immigrant Gerolamo Sbarbaro bought the estate, with 79 hectares of vines yielding some 300,000 liters a year for bulk sale. In the 1970s his son Daniel took over, gave more room to whites, with Moscatel de Alejandría, and began packaging in demijohns under the Vinos Portezuelo brand. Then came the new cellar of the 1980s, the Fundo San Antonio, renamed San Gerónimo in the 1990s, and from 2000 the varietal wines.

According to the figures on its website, it works two vineyards. Panguilemu has 80 hectares of vines on an 800-hectare property: it is dry-farmed, cooler and cloudier, with trellised País over 50 years old, Moscatel de Alejandría, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Carménère. San Gerónimo, on the edge of Portezuelo, adds 120 hectares of vines on a 400-hectare property: it gets more hours of sun, records no frosts, is partly irrigated from a reservoir, and the reds ripen earlier there. The cellar is at Panguilemu and holds close to 2 million liters in steel, wood and concrete vats. Its wines range from blends in 5-liter jugs and 2-liter bottles to varietals in standard bottles. In early 2025 the winery introduced the Versi line, with a Carménère Gran Reserva 2023 and a Chardonnay 2024, and a Late Harvest of Moscatel de Alejandría 2024. According to the winery, the Versi Carménère won a gold medal at Catad'Or 2024.

The winery publishes no tourism program or prices. Its website invites you to visit and to arrange the trip with them, and gives opening hours for the cellar in a 2021 notice: Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 16:30, and Saturdays from 9:00 to 12:30. People who have left reviews on Google say you can buy wine there, wholesale and retail, although the visible reviews are four years old or more. For purchases, the winery now refers you to its sales team by WhatsApp at +56 9 9227 1010, and it is worth writing to that number before going to make sure someone will be there to receive you.