Viña Santa Cruz

The winery

Viña Santa Cruz was born in 2003 at Fundo El Peral, in Lolol, the coastal sector of the Colchagua Valley, as a project of businessman Carlos Cardoen, whose group also owns hotels, a museum and a casino. From the start it set out to link wine with the history of Chile's native peoples, and that shows on its labels: Chamán evokes the Aymara spiritual guide, Tupu the ceremonial brooch of the Mapuche machi, and Make Make the Rapa Nui creator god. In 2011 it earned the Vinos de Chile sustainability certification, since 2017 it has run on solar energy alone, something the winery presents as a first in the country, and at the 2023 Premios Enoturismo (Chile's wine tourism awards) it was chosen as the best wine tourism experience in Chile.

Its 130 hectares of vineyard lie some 40 kilometers from the Pacific, on clay-loam, granitic, sandy and alluvial soils, and part of the vines climb terraced hillsides. Alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Malbec and Syrah, the winery grows varieties that are rare in Chile, such as Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mourvèdre, Touriga Nacional and Petit Verdot, and works with País from century-old vineyards. The lines run from Chamán Reserva and Gran Reserva to the Gran Chamán blend; Make Make combines Tempranillo, Garnacha and Mourvèdre planted in 2012 in the El Huaico sector, at the foot of the terraces; Tupu brings together Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec; Santa Cruz Terrazas is a hillside Petit Verdot, and the Pequeña Escala series gathers a País, a Garnacha, a Touriga Nacional and a fortified wine. Kultrún, its sparkling wine, is made from País by the traditional method.

The visit can fill a whole day. A cable car crosses the vineyard up to the Cerro de las Culturas (Hill of Cultures), where you walk through villages representing the Mapuche, Aymara and Rapa Nui peoples, lookouts over the Lolol valley and a meteorite museum; at the top there is an observatory that hosts the astronomy experiences on Saturdays. Down on the flat are the Museo del Vino, housed in a steel hall that once served as the workshop of the Antofagasta–Bolivia railway, and the Museo del Automóvil, with more than eighty vehicles. Tours with tasting run Tuesday to Saturday and can be combined with lunch at the Loló restaurant, serving Chilean cuisine by Lolol-born chef Marcos Baeza; to spend the night there are two Mapuche rucas (traditional houses). The estate opens Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays.