Viña Viu Manent

The winery

Viu Manent is a winery of the Viu family, whose origins lie in Bodegas Viu, founded in Santiago in 1935 by Catalan immigrant Miguel Viu García and his sons to sell wine under the Vinos Viu brand. The leap into making its own wine came in 1966, when Miguel Viu Manent bought the Hacienda San Carlos de Cunaco, a Colchagua estate with 150 hectares of pre-phylloxera vineyards brought from France in the mid-19th century, its cellar and its manor house. Since 2000 the third generation, led by José Miguel Viu Bottini, has run it, and the wines are exported to more than 45 countries.

The grape that defines the house is Malbec: in 1993 it became the first Chilean winery to bottle it as a named varietal, and from the oldest vines of Block 4 at San Carlos comes VIU 1, the icon wine created in 2001 as a tribute to the founder. It is accompanied by El Incidente (Carménère), Viu Infinito, the ViBo line, the Single Vineyard wines from the La Capilla (Cabernet Sauvignon, in Peralillo) and El Olivar (Syrah, on hillsides) estates, the experimental Tiny Trials and the Secreto line, plus a late-harvest Semillón Noble. In all it farms some 270 hectares planted across its three Colchagua estates.

Visits are organized at the La Llavería visitor center, next to the manor house: horse-drawn carriage tours through the historic Malbec blocks, walks and electric-bike rides, tastings at different levels in the Cava Don Miguel, vertical tastings of VIU 1 and El Incidente, programs with a three-course lunch at Rayuela Wine & Grill, and horseback rides with the riding club that operates on the estate. There is a wine shop and an Emporio of Andean crafts in the old chapel, a café, picnics under the poplars, chef Pilar Rodríguez's Food & Wine Studio and ViBo Wine Lodge, eight lofts for sleeping among the vines. The winery is open every day of the year and has featured for seven consecutive years in The World's 50 Best Vineyards.