Viña Sutil / Viña La Playa (Hotel Viña La Playa)

The winery

Viña Sutil was born in the Colchagua Valley in the 1990s on the initiative of Juan Sutil, an agricultural entrepreneur whose family came to Chile from Spain in 1850 and who has also built companies in fresh fruit, nuts and farm services. Its first winemaker was his nephew Diego García de la Huerta, who traveled the country in search of soils and climates to plant: besides Colchagua he chose the Limarí, for its limestone soils, and Cauquenes, in the Maule, for its small, concentrated bunches. The family remains at the helm today — Nicolás Sutil chairs the board — and the company, Top Wine Group, produces the Sutil, La Playa and Chono brands with winemaker Daniel Postiglione.

The heart of the project is Fundo San Jorge, in the San Miguel de Calleuque sector, on the south bank of the Tinguiririca, about 55 kilometers from the Pacific and 45 from the Andes. Here are the flagship vineyard, trellised on alluvial and limestone soils that turn deep and clayey away from the river, and the cellar where the wines are made. In Colchagua they grow Carménère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. This estate yields Acrux, a blend led by Carménère (51% in the 2022 vintage, together with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot) aged in 500-liter barrels and foudre. Mixtio, the icon wine, unites Carménère from San Jorge, Syrah from Tabalí and Petit Verdot from Cauquenes, spends three years in French oak and pays tribute to Diego, who was an aviator as well as a winemaker. The Limited Release, Grand Reserve and Reserve lines, the Bella rosé, the La Playa wines, an Extra Brut sparkling and a late-harvest Viognier complete the range.

Visits take place at the Hotel Viña La Playa, a colonial-style manor house built in the early 2000s in the middle of the vineyard; the name comes from a small beach formed by an arm of the river a few steps from the house. The tours pass through the vineyards and end in the tasting room: the shortest lasts an hour and pours two Limited Release wines and Acrux, while the Iconos Tour, which runs daily, enters the family cellar and closes with Mixtio and a charcuterie board. There is also a private tour with a four-course lunch, a paired dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, and full-day packages with picnic, pool and massages; everything is booked online through the hotel's website, and tastings are for over-18s only. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner with Chilean cooking from local produce, the hotel has 11 rooms and a guesthouse, and the estate adds three kilometers of riverside trails, bikes, a tennis court and an airstrip 100 meters from the door. It is 22 kilometers from Santa Cruz.