Tour review: Emiliana Organic Vineyards
September 20, 2015
This is a biodynamic and fair trade winery, so I found this tour especially interesting, particularly as the guide noted our interest and gave us more details than is usual on winery tours.
The environment is very peaceful and there are hens and guinea fowls pecking amongst the vines and alpacas to add extra interest.
Nice facilities and there were options such as tastings with cheese or chocolate and picnics.
Overall score 9 / 10
| Cost | $13,000 Chilean pesos. |
| Ease of booking | Good. Booked by email and received confirmation within a few hours. |
| Information prior to arrival | Website is comprehensive |
| Getting there | Access to Emiliana is directly from the Ruta 68 motorway between Santiago and Viña/Valparaíso, right after the Zapata toll if you are coming from Santiago. If you are coming from the coast, be careful to leave the motorway in good time, as otherwise you will have to pay the toll, turn back on yourself and pay the toll a second time. |
| Welcome on arrival | Good |
| Efficiency | Good |
| Toilets | Clean and pleasant. |
| Café / restaurant | There is a restaurant Monday to Friday. I visited on a Saturday so was not able to see it in operation. |
| Shop | Nicely laid out. Stocks the full range of wines. The shop also sells honey and olive oil and hats produced by the winery’s employees; funds go into a special fund used in benefit of the employees. All prices were quite high and the wines were only slightly cheaper than the retail price in the supermarket. |
| Languages available | English and Spanish. At least one staff member was able to speak Portuguese. |
| Brief description of tour | Officially 30 minutes, our tour and tasting actually lasted almost 2 hours – perhaps because we showed so much interest or perhaps because there were no later bookings. Our guide really knew her subject and was enthusiastic about it, so we came away feeling we had learned a lot about biodynamic agriculture. The tour only covers a small area of ground, but we saw some vines, a range of the animals which are part of the holistic style of agriculture practiced here (alpacas, hens, guinea fowls) and some of the workers’ organic gardens, amongst other things. The wine is not produced at this site, so we were unable to see the production facilities and barrels. |
| Tour guide’s ability to answer questions | Very good |
| Tasting | 4 wines, very good. |