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Colchagua Valley Winery & Home
Property Details
Genuinely unique boutique vineyard, hotel & home
Located in Chile's famous Colchagua Valley
Fully equipped winery & tasting room
2 hectares of land
1 hectare of vineyard in production
2 luxury studio apartments
New 75m2 winery building inspired by Victorian architecture
Mature gardens
Worker's cottage
Wine storage unit
Price $650.000.000 pesos (+/-US$700,000)
Price doesn't include winemaking or vineyard equipment
*Price doesn't include brand or existing wine stocks*
A Unique Opportunity
*Note: This is our own property & we will remain in the neighbourhood very close by when this property is sold. We can assist with managing the vineyard, making your wine, buying the grapes from you, or a combination of all the options, if required. We will remain fully involved in the wine business in general and in the neighbourhood for the foreseeable future. The property can be purchased with or without winemaking and vineyard equipment. The sale of this property is commission-free.*
It is extremely rare for a property and project such as this to come on the market. If you’re looking for an instant introduction to the wine industry, with an income-producing boutique hotel attached, then there is no better option in Chile. For more information, please email.
Below is an outline of the property and the project. It is located just 2.5 hours south of Santiago.
Please note that although the existing wine stock and our brand name are not included in the price, we are open to the possibility of selling the wine and transferring the brand name as well. In this case, I would be more than happy to stay on and assist with the handover for a period of 12-24 months, or to continue to manage the property and brand for longer. Any handover would include transfer to our existing importers in the UK, US, Hong Kong and Sweden, and help with the local market.
Another option is for a new owner to continue the tourism operation using our wines and brand name for this business, without actually getting involved in the winery operation (we would continue to manage the vineyard in this case).
A further option is for a new owner to set up their own wine brand (and we can assist with this from winemaking to branding).
I will remain long-term (and directly next door) in the neighbourhood so would be available to help with anything you might require.
The Neighbourhood
Santa Ana is a small area of land between Santa Cruz and Pichilemu, where a community of like-minded friends have set about creating a world-class winery and vineyard neighbourhood. There are now 7 boutique wineries, all within a couple of minutes of each other, all producing high-quality wines, and all working their vineyards organically. There is nowhere else in Chile like Santa Ana- it is utterly unique. There’s a wonderful community of both long-term locals and people newer to the neighbourhood.
We have no plans to move away from Santa Ana ourselves! We will remain in the neighbourhood and the only reason we are considering selling is because we enjoy creating new projects and homes. We are certainly in no rush to sell and will continue to work on and invest in the property and the project until the time comes to sell- we have just finishing building a new winery and are planting new vineyard too, on top of adding gardens and improvements to the houses.
The Winery & Hotel
The only building on the land when it was purchased was an earthquake damaged adobe workers’ cottage. This building was fully renovated, strengthened and expanded in 2011-2012 and converted into our home. Reclaimed, antique roof tiles were used for the roof, and the traditional Chilean Colonial-style of the original cottage was respected.
In 2018 work commenced on converting the original home into our winery, tasting room, and small-scale boutique hotel. The total square metres of the winery/hotel building is now +/-210m2 and includes:
1,000m2 of fenced-in land
50m2, fully equipped winery, and large storage and laboratory space,
with crush-pad outside
Tasting room, with bathroom
2 luxury, fully-equipped and fully-furnished studio apartments, each with large kitchens
Swimming pool with landscaped gardens
Laundry and storeroom
Staging kitchen
Bathroom
60m2 outdoor dining area
Grape pergola
BBQ and mud oven
Mature gardens of roses, olives, palm-trees & grapevines
There is a possibility of converting part of the winery into an additional studio.
We have also drawn up plans to reconvert this building into a beautiful, cozy home, should that be your preferred option.
New Winery Building
We have recently built a new winery building of 75m2 to give us more space to grow our wine business. The beautiful exposed brick design was inspired by a Victorian-era winery building in Australia and also buildings in London. We did not want to build something basic, but something that would help beautify our project and we are thrilled with the result. The interior is fully insulated and the roof has double the usual insulation too, with the intention to reduce energy usage and cost through reduced use of air-conditioning.
If you required more rooms, this winery could be converted into a home or additional lodging.
The Vineyard
Purchased in 2011 with nothing planted and only a tumbledown, earthquake-damaged, 100-year old adobe workers’ cottage on the 2 hectares (5 acres) of land, we have created a unique business and lifestyle property in Chile’s famous Colchagua Valley.
In 2013, we planted our main vineyard with the 3 main Rhône varietals: One hectare (2.5 acres) in total of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre. Our first production was in 2015, with 1 barrel produced, and in 2016 we produced our first commercial vintage. Since then, we have created a successful brand called La Despensa Wines and we export our wines to 5 countries at the moment.
The vineyard now has Marsanne and Viognier- white Rhône varietals- planted and in production too.
Overall average production from the vineyard is around 3,000kg of Grenache, 2,400kg of Syrah, 1,500kg of Mourvedre and 250kg each of the white varietals. This translates to an average of around 5,000 litres of wine.
The vineyard is managed organically, with zero use of herbicide or chemical pesticides since we purchased in 2011. We have left small areas totally wild to increase biodiversity and have seen a huge increase in birds and insects on the land in the past few years.
Wine Production
Our first wine was produced in 2015- just one barrel! From there we have steadily increased production to around 10,000 bottles under the La Despensa Wines brand. We export our wines to the US, UK, Sweden, Hong Kong and now Canada. And we are constantly looking for new markets.
Our US importer is also *national*, which is extremely rare for a small winery to find.
As mentioned, it is possible to purchase the brand name and existing stocks, along with our distribution network with the property. Or you could start your own wine brand and we can assist you with this. But if you don't want to be involved first hand in the wine business, we can manage the vineyard and use the grapes ourselves. Costs etc can be discussed.
Additional Buildings, Infrastructure & Land
A caretaker’s cottage of 85m2 was built in the traditional Colonial-style in 2014 and has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, integrated kitchen-living-dining room, pantry/storage, outdoor deck and is completely fenced in, with a mature rose garden out front. This home has been used by our caretaker and by international volunteers, who come to work on the property in exchange for board and lodging. At the moment, the house is occupied by our full-time worker. This home could be converted into a main home so that you could maintain the hotel/tourism areas for income production.
A fully insulated 120m2 wine storage unit with air-conditioning was built in 2017 and has space for more than 40,000 bottles. A look-out was built for tourism purposes on top of the building and affords incredible views over the entire property.
There is a large shed which houses the water tank with additional space for storage of tools and equipment.
In 2020, a 10KW solar plant was installed. This is an on-grid system, which sells excess production back to the grid. Average monthly electricity bills are now barely above the fixed charge, a saving of an average $200.000 per month ($2.4 million pesos per year, +/-US$3,400). This is the largest domestic solar energy system on the market.
A deep well of 42m provides irrigation water for the vineyard (with subterranean water rights of 0.5 litre per second included), and also clean, chlorine-free water for the winery and hotel. The water is stored in a tank and pumped out via a UV filter to the building. The vineyard is irrigated directly from the well, via driplines.
The property also comes with water rights from the canal system, sufficient for the irrigation of the entire plantation.
The entire property is fenced with chain-link fence, dug in 30cm deep with planks nailed to the base and chicken wire as an additional defence to ensure dogs or other animals can’t dig in or out. There is mature hawthorn hedge along the front and side of the property.
The road to the property is paved in its entirety.
The houses and buildings have been registered with the Municipality- all paperwork is in order.
This is a unique property, in a wonderful community, and just 2.5 hours from Santiago. The town of Santa Cruz, with large supermarkets, excellent restaurants, and good schools is just 30 minutes away, and the rapidly improving surf town of Pichilemu, is 45 minutes away.