🇨🇱 Exploremos Colchagua: Join us to Taste the Best Wines of Chile (Day 1)🍷

Imagine beginning your day amongst an expanse of grapevines almost ready to harvest. Chickens wandering around in search of their breakfast. The sun warming your shoulders while everyone at home was experiencing the coldest temperatures of the year.

Well, yes. That is EXACTLY how we began our first full day in the Colchagua Valley in Chile.

When we began planning our South American adventure, it only included a short stop in Santiago. But with some thought, and some logistical consideration, we knew we had to include several days in the wine regions of Chile. Plus, Chile had always been on my must-visit list. So we carved out the time for 3 nights in Chile, and narrowed our focus to the area of the Colchagua Valley, about 2.5 hours southwest of Santiago. Santa Cruz serves as the hub of Colchagua, surrounded by vineyard-covered hills and valley-floor vines that extend for miles, threading together a series of small towns across the valley.

The Colchagua Valley is one of Chile’s most important wine regions, known for producing consistently high-quality red wines across a wide range of climates stretching from the Andes to the Pacific. Unlike Napa and many other more compact wine regions, Colchagua’s broad east–west expanse allows for diverse expressions, from powerful, sun-ripened blends to cooler, more structured styles. It is also the region most closely identified with Carménère, Chile’s signature grape, which finds a particularly expressive balance here—ripe, savory, and deeply tied to the valley’s identity. And a wine we have really enjoyed…from afar until now!

Our typical wine trip includes 3 vineyards per day, and so the Colchagua Valley was no exception. We had hired a driver for our visit, and Mauricio promptly picked us up from our inn to get started for the day. For our first day, we planned to visit Encierra, Viña Maquis, and Laura Hartwig.

So break out your 🍷copa🍷, and your 🕶️gafas del sol🕶️, and vámonos!

Encierra

What a way to begin the day. Nestled in the valley in the small town of Peralilla, Encierra captured my heart from the moment we turned into their driveway. The property is about 130 hectares (about 320 acres) in total. Vines are grown on about five percent of that. The vines are planted on the valley floor surrounding the small winery, and extend up into the hills. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and those sweet little chickens kept wandering around.

Our host, Marianella, met us and shared the fascinating history of the winery with us as we toured. While some people don’t love seeing all of the details, we are always excited to learn about the vineyard and winemaking process and how each unique winery makes their wines. Encierra was no different, and we thoroughly enjoyed learning about them. It’s a small winery with a total capacity of 100,000 liters, although they’re not currently producing that much. They have no plans to produce more than that and want to maintain the small boutique winery focus.

After our tour, we got to choose where to taste their wines, and we chose the perfect spot to enjoy the wines while soaking in the view. We tasted the Rose, the 2023 Encierra Carménère, the 2024 Textura, the 2024 Andres Syrah, and the Porel. We also had an inviting charcuterie board to accompany the tasting.

The wines were beautiful, and it was difficult to select our favorites. My partner in wine will be posting his more in depth tasting notes from select wines shortly, so be sure to subscribe to be notified when he does!

We wrapped up our visit with a delightful chat with the owner’s daughter, who now runs the business, along with her brother, and was working at the winery the day we visited. She showed us the cork trees that grew on the property and we would have loved nothing more than to leisurely sit and talk with her over a copa de Carménère. But, Mauricio kept us on track, and we had to say “Chau” to Encierra so we could make our next visit.

Viña Maquis

Our next adventure was at Viña Maquis. We arrived at their tasting room and bodega, housed in a quincho (the name for a building used for barbecues) built in 1850 by the Hurtado family who originally purchased the winery in 1916 (and still own it today!). The property is about 200 hectares with 70% planted. The vines extended as far as the eye could see, with a modern winery situated further out on the property amongst the vines. The vineyard is situated between two rivers, and one runs right along the tasting room. It’s a lovely spot, and after meeting our host, Daniel, we walked the area around the tasting room while learning more about Maquis. (Fun fact, they offer kayaking tours on the river ending with a tasting at the winery! I highly recommend checking that out if you enjoy more active vacations!)

After our tour, we settled into the tasting room, and learned a bit more about their sister winery, Calcu, which was started in 2003 to take advantage of a more coastal climate. Daniel was fabulous, and we enjoyed chatting with him about the winery, the wine, and lots of other randomness. And if you’re wondering, all of the wineries we visited offered tours in English, so it was easy to learn and enjoy each of our visits. 

During this tasting, we enjoyed four iconic Maquis wines, beginning with the Maquis Revela Rosé. We then got a chance to try a Calcu wine: the 2021 Calcu Cabernet Sauvignon. And then finally, we enjoyed a 2021 Maquis Viola and a 2021 Maquis Franco. We thought all of that was amazing! To top it off, however, the winemaker, Rodrigo Romero, who was chatting to a small group who he appeared to know in the other room, brought in a magnum of the 2013 Franco and shared some with us! Meeting the winemaker (albeit briefly!), AND sharing a pour of another amazing vintage of the Franco (spoiler alert…it was my favorite!) was quite the experience for us!

From there, we were moving back toward Santa Cruz for our final visit of the day 🥂.

Laura Hartwig

After our first two amazing tastings, we were ready to round out our day at Laura Hartwig. Laura Hartwig is another family owned and run winery, very close to the heart of Santa Cruz in Colchagua. We arrived and joined two wine lovers from the UK for this final tour and tasting of the day.

Laura Hartwig inherited the winery from her father in 1966. Today, her family continues her legacy and has 20 hectares of vines, along with additional hectares of cherries and plums, according to our host. We ventured out into the vineyard for our first tasting where we sat under a tree, learning more about the winery, and sampling a delicious sparkling Flor de la Pluma. Our fellow wine lovers were delightful and had been on a cycling trip around the area before winding down their trip with this tasting.

From out in the field, we ventured back to the winery where we got to see the inner-workings of Laura Hartwig in the production and barrel rooms. We love these small, family run wineries and this one was charming. Moving into the tasting room, we were able to appreciate some beautiful local art, including the portrait of Laura Hartwig that is now used on the label of the Laura wine.

For the tasting, we sampled the 2023 Single Vineyard Carménère, the 2023 Petit Verdot, 2022 Edición de Familia Red Blend, and then finally the 2017 Laura Red Blend. It was accompanied by a small local charcuterie offering. Do I dare say it was needed after three tastings?

This tasting was lovely and we enjoyed sharing it with the couple (one of only three shared tastings during our whole trip). It wrapped our first full day in Colchagua, and from there, we headed out in search of a local Chilean dish called pastel de choclo (check out the Serious Eats version here for reference). Mauricio, our driver, joined us for a relaxing early dinner at Casa Colchagua.

And although we did not find pastel de choclo, it was a delicious end to the day with great company!

Hotel Quinta Maria

We wrapped up our evening at our inn in Santa Cruz — hanging out with the resident perros 🐶, relaxing by the pool, and calling it an early night. Being two hours ahead of Venice time and having hit the ground running as soon as we landed, the previous day, the recharge was very much needed at our charming little inn.

Stay tuned for more travel adventures, and be sure to subscribe to receive an email when we share the next day’s winings🍷 and wanderings.

¡Salud!