Viña Río Claro

The winery

Viña Río Claro is a family project in the town of Río Claro, in the municipality of Yumbel, in the dry-farmed interior of the Bío Bío Valley. The family of Cristian Ubilla Rojas has grown grapes and made wine in the area for four generations; in 2020 he gave the winery a name of its own, today the company Viña Rio Claro SpA, which grows, makes and sells its own wines. The vineyards are around the town, and the winery and wine shop are at Fundo El Almendro, on Avenida Colón.

The winery works País, Moscatel de Alejandría, Cinsault, Malbec and Tintorera. Its blocks include old vines with thick, gnarled trunks, which the family describes as century-old, and a Cinsault block planted in 2005 with 15,000 plants. The line includes Monterrey, a red of País; the Rosé Paume, also of País; the white Moscatel Oro, of Moscatel de Alejandría; the Cinsault Lobo Negro and the Malbec Maximus Grand Cru, both under the Secano Interior Yumbel designation, and two sweet late harvests, one of Moscatel and one of Malbec. It also makes liqueurs, chicha (lightly fermented grape must) and aguardiente (grape spirit). At the Día Nacional del Vino Chileno in Yumbel in 2023 it received the diploma for best País wine of the Bío Bío Valley.

Visits are arranged in advance by WhatsApp or phone at +56 9 5942 7563, by email to ventas@vinarioclarochile.cl or through the website's form, and the winery publishes no prices. They include a walk through the vineyards, the family's story, a tour of the adobe-walled winery with its barrels and an old 12,000-liter wooden vat, and a tasting of wines and liqueurs; it also receives groups that come with tour operators from Concepción. The wine shop, a tile-roofed building with a terrace beside the pool and the vines, sells its wines, liqueurs, chicha and aguardiente, and according to Google Maps it opens Monday to Saturday. In late April, the winery takes part with its wines in the Fiesta de la Vendimia Campesina de Río Claro, the country harvest festival held at the town stadium.