Things to do
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Clos Apalta Residence
Four casitas and a lodge set high on the Apalta hillside above the Lapostolle winery, each one looking straight down the length of the valley. The kitchen works from the estate garden, transfers run up from Santa Cruz, and the cellar cut into the rock below forms part of a stay.
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Hotel Santa Cruz Plaza
A colonial styled hotel taking one full side of the plaza, built by the founder of the Colchagua museum and holding several small collections of its own. It is the practical base for the valley, with the museum, the church and the bus stop all inside the same square.
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Museo de Colchagua
The largest private museum in Chile, assembled by the businessman Carlos Cardoen and running from fossils and pre Columbian goldwork through the conquest, the huaso estates and the capsule that lifted the San José miners out in 2010. It opens daily, and the collection takes about two hours at a steady walk.
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Viña Laura Hartwig
A small estate on the edge of Santa Cruz, near enough to reach from the plaza on foot or by bicycle, with a tasting room in the family house and old trees around the garden. The scale is far below the Apalta names, and the vineyard tour walks blocks that begin at the fence.
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Viña Montes
An Apalta winery built into the hillside in 2004 to a feng shui plan, with terraced slopes climbing behind it and Gregorian chant played to the barrels in the cellar. Visits are by appointment, the lane in from the main road is narrow and slow, and the walk between the hill blocks is steep.
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Viu Manent
A family estate at Cunaquito working the valley since 1935, with malbec vines old enough to predate the modern plantings and a collection of carriages in the yard. Tours cross the old vineyard on a horse drawn cart and finish in the cellar, and a place has to be booked before arriving.