If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you already know how huge wine tasting in Chile is. Chile’s wine regions are now world famous and right up there with the likes of Italy, France, and California. However, Chile’s are way younger than the rest, having really only gained popularity in the last 30 years or so.
By my count there are 16 (maybe 17?) distinct wine regions in Chile. Two of the most popular are the Casablance Valley outside Valparaiso and the Maipo Valley outside the capital of Santiago. This guide will show you what wine tasting is like in these two popular wine regions so you can work this awesome activity into your own Chile itinerary. Enjoy!
Wine tasting in Chile
The wine regions of Chile specialize mainly in chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, and cabernet sauvignons. And I assume that means something to you, person reading about wine tasting.
I, myself, am a beer drinker who only knows the most superficial things about wine. I know there are whites and reds and sometimes there are pinks—excuse me, blush—and some have bubbles. In Slovenia, they even have what’s known as “orange wines.” In Morocco, they have “gray wines.”
I know they each have their own kind of glass from which to drink them. And I know that people get super pissed if you pair the wrong color wine with the wrong color food. But I also know that all wines, regardless of color, go well with cheese, beautiful surroundings, and alpacas.
Expert in tasting wine, not wine
To give you an idea of what to expect from this post, here’s an anecdote: After sampling many wines in Chile, I had finally chosen a favorite, a variety known as País. When I told this to the wine guru serving me, he responded: “Ah yes; that is the least sophisticated wine in all of Chile!” So there you have it.
If you’re looking for a post on tannin levels, acidity, balance, bouquet, or any of the other terms I just plucked from an article titled “Sound Like a Wine Pro with These Words,” this isn’t the blog post for you.
However, if you’re here to learn more about wine tasting in Chile as a super fun activity in which to partake here, then welcome! You’re among friends.
Wine tasting in Chile: Casablanca or Maipo Valley?
During our one week in Chile, my three friends and I knew we wanted to do some wine tastings. But with so many distinct wine regions here, we didn’t know where to go exactly. We narrowed it down to two that would be the most accessible—the Casablanca Valley just outside Valparaiso and the Maipo Valley just outside the capital of Santiago.
Not being able to decide on just one, we picked them both. A more obvious choice has never been made actually. But, we did them in two very different ways. If you do have to pick just one, read on to see which one appeals to you more.
Wine tasting in Chile: Casablanca Valley
Chile’s Casablanca Valley is located just a little south and a little inland of Valparaiso—the colorful port city where white walls go to die. Grape vines were first planted in this area in the mid-1980s. (I told you they were babies!)
The Casablanca wine region is known for its white wines—mostly sauvignon blanc and chardonnay—but also for pinot noir because Chile is an equal opportunity intoxicator.
Wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley
When it came to wine tasting in Chile, we decided to do our day in the Casablanca Valley independently and not part of an organized wine tasting tour. Just four grown adults, out here in the world drinking wine, talking to alpacas.
Our time was our own; no rush, no agenda, and no clue what our own names were by the time we reached the second of three wineries. No one to tell us ‘No’ or where to go, or say we’re only dreaming. Wine tasting in Chile was, indeed, a whole new world.
During our day wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley, we visited three wineries and participated in formal wine tastings at each. And let me tell you, there’s nothing like having someone tell you how you should be holding your glass to make you feel like maybe you shouldn’t be using words like “ashtray” or “purple” to describe what you’re tasting. But I digress.
Wineries in the Casablanca Valley are way out in the countryside. It’s wide open and beautiful, dusty, and scenic. The views are endless, the whole place is calm and quiet, and we saw exactly six other people the entire day. And two of those people shared their snacks with us so they were our favorites. (I keep score, yes.)
Where to go wine tasting in Casablanca
There are about a dozen wineries in the Casablanca Valley that are actually open to visitors. We chose to visit three of them:
We chose these based on things like their locations, their hours, whether or not they had alpacas on site (my input), and the personal recommendations of a friend based on her previous visits. But mostly the alpaca thing.
Viña Emiliana
The first winery of the day was Viña Emiliana—a fully organic and biodynamic winery. And even though it was our first, it ended up being my favorite after a full seven days of wine tasting in Chile.
Viña Emiliana specializes in cabernet sauvignon, some blends, and some other types I’d never heard of like Carmenere and Carignan. So of course I would tell you the Casablanca Valley is a popular white wine destination, and then immediately contradict myself.
Viña Emiliana also specializes in sustainability through biodiversity integration, solid and liquid waste management, efficient energy use, and by using alpacas to keep pests away.
They offer a couple of different wine tastings and tours every day of the week but Monday. We opted for the Gê Organic Tasting Tour which includes 4 premiums wines, each paired with cheeses and chocolate.
After our tasting, each of us purchased a full glass of our favorite—mine being the least sophisticated, naturally. We hung around for a couple more hours, walked around the property, hung out with the alpacas, etc.
Bodegas Re
I’m not gonna lie to ya—by the time we got to Bodegas Re, I was LIT AF. By that I mean, Little InToxicated, Aboslutely Famished.
Bodegas Re is interesting in terms of winemaking in a way that even I know is weird. The ‘RE’ part of their name comes from the concepts of Recreate, Reinvent, and Reveal. They make wines like:
We did another fully guided wine tasting here at Bodegas Re (led by a guy whose commentary on wine was about as interesting as my take on the Oxford comma). However, one of my friends that was with us said she had done a tasting here on a previous visit and her guide was fantastic. So I guess it’s just hit or miss. Or in their case, hiss.
Bodegas Re also has a large shop of their wines but also locally produced goods like clothing, blankets, and locally made Alfajor El Nogal (not fully sure what it is but make sure you buy a bunch of them). No alpacas.
Bodegas Re offers a whole bunch of different tastings and tours, just know that their prices are listed in Chilean Pesos (which also use the dollar sign) so you don’t have a heart attack when you go to book one.
Casas del Bosque
Casas del Bosque is Chile’s fancy home for whites. (I should reword that.) They specialize in cool-climate wine varieties like sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and Riesling, but also offer pinot noir and syrah. In 2010, they were designated the “Best Vineyard to Visit in Chile” and in 2023 and 2024 voted one of the 50 best vineyards to visit in the world.
Cases del Bosque is nice. Like, noice. I definitely felt too intoxicated to be somewhere so fancy. Underlined by the numerous pictures of their dirt that I found on my phone the next day. (They have the softest dirt I’ve ever felt though!)
To complete our first day of wine tasting in Chile, we opted for yet another full wine tasting as Casas del Bosque. I couldn’t tell you any of the wines we sampled but my credit card statement says I paid for the Premium Wine Tasting. So, it looks like I had a sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, and a syrah.
This whole (alpaca-free) property is beautiful and they offer several different tours and tastings. Beyond that, they also offer a ton of unique “experiences.” You can become a winemaker for a day, take a cooking class, do some grape harvesting, or even take a guided bike ride through the vineyards. I just played in the dirt.
How to get around Casablanca
Though the easiest way to get around here would be by car, please do not drive yourself to go wine tasting in Chile. It’s right there in the name. Wine tasting + driving = BAD IDEA. Just say no.
Instead, you can get around using public transportation or by booking an organized wine tasting tour. Since we were doing this independently, we used public transportation.
Using public transportation
The Casablanca Valley is most easily accessed from the nearby port city of Valparaiso (though you can certainly visit from Santiago too). If this is where you’ll be starting your day wine tasting in Chile, you’ll first want to head to the bus station.
At the bus station, search the ticket windows for signs that say “Casablanca” printed in large font on a piece of computer paper. There will likely be more than one bus company offering trips here. The bus from downtown Valparaiso to Casablanca takes about 30 minutes and they drop you off in Casablanca center. From here, grab one of the waiting cabs and they can take you the wineries.
To travel between wineries here, it’s as simple as taking cabs from one place to the next. Someone from the winery you’re currently at will be happy to call a cab for you to get to the next one.
Pro tip: Always discuss a rate with the driver before getting into any cab. This goes for Chile and basically anywhere else in the world. When calling, discuss the rate upfront, and then confirm that same rate when the car arrives, before getting into the car.
To return to Valparaiso, you can just backtrack. Take a cab to Casablanca center and catch a bus back to Valpo. Or you can handle things the way we did after eight hours of wine drinking: pay the cab drive to take you all the way back to the front steps of your rental home in Valparaiso.
As always, discuss the rate for this first. It’s not so far a drive as to be unaffordable, but if you’re wine tasting in Chile on a budget, there’s always the bus.
Casablanca wine tasting tours
If wine tasting in Chile the independent way isn’t your style, have no fear! Organized tours are here! Check out these options for going wine tasting in Chile’s Casablanca Valley with a guide:
There are tons of options. See all available Chile wine tasting tours here on Viator and Get Your Guide.
Wine tasting in Chile: Maipo Valley
So while Chile’s Casablanca Valley is best visited from Valparaiso, the Maipo Valley is most easily visited from Santiago, the country’s capital. This is also Chile’s oldest wine-producing region.
Unlike smaller Casablanca, the Maipo Valley is actually so big that it has a few distinct wine subregions within itself. All of these specialize in producing cabernet sauvignon and other reds. So it’s old and specializes in cabernet? Aunt Joan, is that you?
Wine tasting in the Maipo Valley
Remember when I said the four of us went wine tasting in Chile in two very different ways? Well, here’s where it gets interesting. And by “interesting” I mean we get drunk on a bus and there’s a bunch of peacocks with us at one point.
Unlike the independent, sit-down tasting day we had in Casablanca, in the Maipo Valley we did a full-on guided wine tasting tour of the area. In order to get the most out of our last day wine tasting in Chile, we booked spots on the Maipo Valley Little Wine Bus.
Maipo Valley Little Wine Bus
While the little wine bus wasn’t as organized and white tablecloth-y as our day in Casablanca, it was still a few steps up from sipping chard out of coffee mugs on Aunt Joan’s patio. We had a seriously fun, interesting, and totally unexpected day during which we never had an empty glass. I mean, never.
The Maipo Valley Little Wine Bus is a small group tour of the region that includes:
There was a total of seven of us on our little wine bus (plus our guide) and we consumed what feels like 45 bottles of wine. Probably. We learned all about the different wines produced here, ate plenty of food, met a kitten named Aretha Franklin, and never felt rushed all day.
We had more than enough time at each location. And that’s considering I even spent half an hour laying in the grass at our second-to-last stop. (Wine drinking is hard, y’all.) The Maipo Valley Little Wine Bus is definitely more to have a fun, unique wine tasting experience and less for the intricacies of wine tasting and production.
Where to go wine tasting in Maipo Valley
Our Little Wine Bus picked us up in Santiago and took us about 45 minutes to our first stop: La Espina del Arte.
La Espina del Arte
La Espina del Arte is the home, studio, and gallery of a local artist. We started with a fresh homegrown brunch in her garden followed by a tour of her art gallery and studio, followed by the commencement of much wine drinking.
Viña De Martino
Our first winery of the day was Viña De Martino—a winery run by a family from Italy. We learned about Chile’s wine regions, what Carmenere is, and the fact that my nearly nonexistent wine tolerance was going to make for a very interesting day.
Viña Santa Ema & TerraMater
Next up was Viña Santa Ema where there was a friendly dog and, more importantly, a restroom. We then visited the TerraMater winery and shop where our guide Felipe talked all about Maipo Valley wines while I took pictures of avocados on trees.
Casaquinta Peumayen
After our 3rd winery of the day, we hit up the country house of Casaquinta Peumayen, a rural guesthouse/B&B/farm you can actually book a room at. This was our lunch stop where we were treated to a delicious homemade meal surrounded by peacocks, itty bitty kitties, and chickens all under a canopy of fruit trees and abundant grape vines. It was all super magical.
Another stop
After lunch, our next stop was… not a winery? We were told it was an event venue, but it was a beautiful old estate surrounded by vineyards. Do with that information what you like.
We wandered through the vines, tasted the different grapes, relaxed on the patio, then took a nap in the grass with a dog. Well, I did at least.
One last unexpected stop
Our last stop of the day was the most interesting by far. One thing led to another and our small group ended up in the garage behind our tour guide’s house. This is where he introduced us to a couple homemade varieties of historical Chilean hooch which he told us were “100% alcohol.”
We think he meant “100 proof” but we can’t be sure. Especially considering I then bought our tour guide’s cup. Like, I gave him money and left with the cup he was drinking out of. Good times.
Note that I took this tour in 2019 and, though the itinerary looks pretty much the same, there may be some differences now.
How to get around the Maipo Valley
You heard me say “little wine bus” like 20 times, right?
For real though, the wineries of the Maipo Valley are close enough together that you could also taxi between each one if you wanted to visit them independently. However, since we’d already experience wine tasting in Chile that way, we wanted to try something different.
Not only was the little wine bus a seriously fun and interesting experience, it was also really nice to not have to worry about getting back to our hotel while intoxicated. Again: DO NOT DRIVE to these wineries yourself.
Maipo Valley wine tasting tours
If you’re looking for something similar to the wine bus but perhaps with different options, check out these Maipo Valley wine tasting tours:
There are tons of options. See all available Chile wine tasting tours here on Viator and Get Your Guide.
Pro tip: And when you’re in Santiago, I highly recommend a dinner and wine tasting at Bocanáriz. (Make reservations!)
Tips for wine tasting in Chile
Here are a few helpful tips for your day(s) wine tasting in Chile:
More info for your trip to Chile
Like this post? Have questions about wine tasting in Chile? Let me know in the comments below. Have a great trip!
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