Viñamar (Casa Viñamar)

The winery

Viñamar was born in 2002 in the Casablanca Valley as a project devoted to sparkling wines: that year the company Viña del Mar de Casablanca, a subsidiary of Viña Tarapacá, was set up and its first wines reached the market. With the 2008 merger of Viña San Pedro and Viña Tarapacá, it became part of VSPT Wine Group, the CCU-controlled group that also owns San Pedro, Tarapacá and Leyda. Its home is a large white Moroccan-inspired manor house, with arches, balustraded balconies and a long reflecting pool, built beside Ruta 68 among vineyards and the hills of the Cordillera de la Costa. In 2019 the group opened it as a wine-tourism center under the name Casa Valle Viñamar, which that year won the international Best of Wine Tourism award for sustainable tourism practices; today it goes by Casa Viñamar.

Around the house the winery farms 61 hectares of its own, plus 26 leased in the Loyola area, in a valley kept cool by the nearby sea. Its portfolio brings together a dozen sparkling wines, from the Brut, Extra Brut and Rosé to the Brut Unique, the Moscato, the Ice Sweet and the alcohol-free Zero line, made mostly from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Casablanca and Leyda; most undergo their second fermentation in pressurized tanks (Charmat method). The icon is the Método Tradicional Extra Brut, 52% Pinot Noir and 48% Chardonnay, which rests 30 months on its lees in bottle before disgorgement; in Descorchados 2021 it earned 93 points and was named sparkling-wine revelation, while the Extra Brut was named best Charmat sparkling wine.

The house opens every day, from 10:00 to 17:30 in winter and until 18:30 in summer. Visits are bought in advance through VSPT Tours & Events: the Ultra Premium tour covers the vineyard and the underground cellar and ends with three sparkling wines; Discover Viñamar serves five and compares Casablanca with Leyda; Premium Wines adds reds from Tarapacá with cheeses and charcuterie. There is also a blind tasting in teams, a workshop to build your own blend and take the bottle home, an electric-scooter ride through the vineyards and a picnic for two in the gardens. Minors do not take part in the tastings. The 250-square-meter shop sells the whole portfolio along with wines from the group and products from the Casablanca community, and the restaurant Macerado serves tasting menus of Chilean cooking rooted in local produce, paired with the group's wines. The house also hosts weddings and corporate events.