RC Viñedos

The winery

RC Viñedos is the small farm winery of René Cabello Hidalgo and his son René Cabello Contreras, an agronomist, in the El Cóndor sector of Apalta, about nine kilometers from Santa Cruz. The father came to this land in 1973, with the agrarian reform, when it lay abandoned; decades later, in 2017, father and son formed the company RC Viñedos with support from INDAP's Programa Vinos and advice from the French winemaker Arnaud Hereu, and stopped selling only grapes in order to bottle their own wine. René senior also chairs Covicam, the cooperative of small farm wineries of Colchagua, and the family has been a regular presence at the Expo Viñas Campesinas in Chépica and at the harvest festivals of Santa Cruz and Palmilla.

The 21 hectares stretch along the foothills of the hill that closes off the Apalta valley and are dry-farmed, with rain and groundwater as the only irrigation. The vines, which the family dates at more than 120 years, are renewed by layering to preserve the same genetics, and according to René Cabello they are worked without pesticides, though without certification. From them come four wines: Pequén, a blend of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon named after the small owl that lives on the farm, which won the Grand Gold medal and the award for Best Ancestral Campesino (small-farm) Wine at Catad'Or 2021; Cóndor, a Cabernet Sauvignon that the Guía Descorchados scored 94 points and that has won awards at the Expo Viñas Campesinas de Colchagua; Ñuke, a Semillón whose name means mother in Mapudungun; and Baren, a Carménère.

Visits are by appointment only, by phone or WhatsApp. The tour lasts about an hour and a half: in the morning you ride through the vineyard in a tractor-drawn cart, and in the afternoon the experience is sunset among the vines; in both cases you visit the winery with its barrels and taste the four wines with a board of cheeses, cured meats and nuts. Wine is also sold at the winery, with discounts on special dates, and in winter the family invites you to learn and practice the pruning of a century-old vine. There is no restaurant or accommodation. The winery is also the final stop of the electric-bike tour of Apalta run by the Rutacruz agency out of Santa Cruz.