Vina Cono Sur
NileGuide Expert Says:
Cute, bike-friendly, a little bit off the beaten path, this winery is a great place to try Chile's Pinot Noir.
Address:
Santiago, Chile
Phone:
(0)2 203 6732
NileGuide Expert tip:
Sustainable agriculture and organic grapes are the order of the day, and you can stop to buy (or look at) some wicker items at Chimbarongo's wicker workshops.
Description:
In a country with unparalleled wine like Chile, people take a lot of stock in long wine pedigrees with family histories to match. Not so Cono Sur, a winery started in 1993, which features a bicycle on the label, and indeed, that is one way to tour the vineyards in the Colchagua valley, in the town of Chimbarongo.
In 1999, Cono Sur started production of Pinot Noir, and built a special celllar just for this purpose which holds more than 500,000 bottles of it. The bicycle is the symbol of this winery, and in fact, it is how the vineyard workers move around the land, to protect it, as part of a policy of environmental conservation and low impact that the winery supports. The wines are organic since the year 2000, and they implement sustainable agriculture practices.
To visit the winery, you can take the metro tren to San Felipe, and then a colectivo or bus to Chimbarongo. The winery is inside the town (not along the highway where the wicker is sold), or more conventionally, book a tour through a company that does Colchagua valley wine tours.
Map: