Maipo Valley Wine Tour: Santa Rita and Concha y Toro Wineries

After hotel pickup from Santiago, travel south for 30 minutes and arrive at the beautifully landscaped grounds of Santa Rita winery, located in Alto Jahuel in the well-known Maipo Valley.

Meet your winery guide next to the vineyards sprawled about the Andes foothills, where you’ll learn about this winery founded in 1880 and its beginnings as one of the first estates in Chile to grow and develop European grape varieties. Step inside fermentation cellars and the bottling plant, and learn what happens to the grapes once they’re harvested from the vines.

Pass by ‘Bodega 1’ for a glimpse of colonial-era stone and mortar construction, and then listen to how Doña Paula Restaurant became a national monument. In 1814, Doña Paula, the owner of Santa Rita manor, hid 120 independence fighters, known as the ‘120 Patriots,’ in her cellar. When Spanish forces came to search the premises, the matriarch stood her ground. Learn more from your guide what this brave woman said to successfully fend off the Spanish army.

As a tribute to this history, the winery created the 120 label, a bestselling series that you’ll taste at the wine bar. Sample three types of varietals, including cabernet sauvignon, merlot, chardonnay or syrah; maybe pick up scents of raspberries, strawberries or cherries balanced with a trace of vanilla or some other spices.
Spend your remaining time sipping wine in the garden or explore the on-site Andean Museum, containing more than 3,000 pre-Columbian artifacts, including an impressive gold collection.

Climb aboard your vehicle and take a short drive to Concha y Toro winery. You may want to purchase some lunch at a restaurant nearby before starting the winery tour.

Enveloped by the foothills of the Andes, begin your tour of the 1883 winery next to the former summer home of the Concha y Toro family and then follow your winery guide to the Pirque vineyards to learn about the winery’s practices behind cultivating the grapes. From the terrace, capture sweeping views of the valley and perhaps spot the master vineyard keepers responsible for keeping an eye on the vines.

Next, taste Casillero del Diablo (the Devil’s Cellar), an internationally popular wine produced from a carmenere varietal, a grape originally from Bordeaux but now Chile’s signature grape. Then head down into the winery’s cellar, also referred to as Casillero del Diablo and learn about how the wine got its name — did the devil really live in this cellar, or did the winery founder tell this tall tale to deter would-be thieves from his private collection of wine?

Conclude your tour of Concha y Toro at the wine bar and sample more wine from the Casillero del Diablo series and other premier labels. Before heading back to Santiago, hit the wine shop for the best type of souvenir, bottles of wine to take home.