Valparaiso, Chile: a unique coastal city perched in the hills, only a stone’s throw away from the incredible Casablanca Valley in Chile.
Valparaiso is well-deserving of its old nickname “Little San Francisco.” The whole city reminded us of our Bay Area home. From its steep streets with views of the sea around every corner to the colorful hills covered with brightly painted houses to the art galleries and coffee shops we discovered walking through the cobblestone streets, we fell in love with Valparaiso at every turn.
Another commonality between San Francisco and Valparaiso, Chile: Valparaiso wineries! Yes, Valparaiso has its very own version of Napa Valley and Sonoma wine country!
One of the main draws for travelers to Valparaiso – other than one of Pablo Neruda’s funny, whimsical homes – are the nearby wine regions, Maipo and Casablanca Valley, which lie between Valparaiso and Santiago.
We were eager to explore wineries near Valparaiso, but our budget didn’t allow for a wine tasting tour, like this one. So, after advice from locals we met, we planned our own, budget-friendly wine tour to Casablanca Valley near Valparaiso.
Here is our guide on how to go wine tasting in Valparaiso, Chile without a tour.
Psst: Looking for more tips for travel in South America? Check out some of our other posts!
- What to Pack for South America: 32 Backpacking Essentials
- Argentina Wine Tasting & Ridiculous History with Mendoza Wine Camp
- 30 Things No One Tells You About Backpacking in South America
- 13 Things to Know Before You Go to Cusco and Machu Picchu, Peru
Valparaiso Wineries Tour On A Budget
The closest Valparaiso wineries lie in the Casablanca Valley. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find much information online about wine tasting in Valparaiso without a tour.
We considered renting a car, and driving ourselves to wineries in Valparaiso. But having to be sober would take the fun out of wine tasting!
Then there’s the bike wine tour option, where you drunkenly exercise in the sun while wine tasting – the cheapest option by far, but honestly, it sounded miserable (and a bit unsafe – no thanks, dehydration, and drunk biking)!
So, we opted to do our own style of wine tour in Valparaiso.
We spent a day exploring 3 fantastic wineries in the Casablanca wine region using only public transportation and taxis! It turned out to be super budget-friendly, and so easy to do!
We’d always wanted to go wine tasting in Chile and Casablanca Valley did not disappoint.
Getting to Casablanca Valley Wineries From Valparaiso or Santiago
Casablanca Valley is the closest wine region to Valparaiso, only 40km away.
If you’re looking to do a wine tour from Santiago instead, Maipo Valley is the closest. Alternatively, you could also do the Casablanca wine route from Santiago, but this is slightly further away.
Which Casablanca wineries to include on your wine tour from Valparaiso
We had our hostel help us with calling 3 wineries and making wine tasting/tour reservations for us, which we heard is necessary (although in November, when we visited, there were almost no other tourists).
To be honest, we basically chose the wineries at random. I’m sure some people are particular about the wineries they go to, but we just wanted to go to wineries… that have wine. We’re fancy, I know.
We chose Indomita, Bodegas RE, and Emiliana all in the Casablanca Valley.
How to get to the Casablanca Valley Wine Region using public transport
To get to the Casablanca wine region from Valparaiso, you first catch a frequent and inexpensive bus at the bus station.
This bus station is on the outskirts of Valparaiso, so we hopped a bus at our hostel. The ride to get to the bus station was quick and roughly 85x cheaper than a taxi.
Plus, you get a chance to peek at the other scenic hills of the city while enjoying a local commute (if you’re lucky, there may be a clown on board. This happens frequently. The clown may also poke fun at you for being the only Gringos on the bus. Fun!)
The bus station in Valparaiso is right next to the bustling mercado, where you can pick up a bushel of sweet fresh cherries for $1.50 and a bag of raw almonds for $4. Which is exactly what we did. You know, for drunk snacks.
We located a ticket window with a large CASABLANCA sign displayed and bought tickets for the next bus, leaving in a few minutes. Cost: 1,000/$1.50. The comfortable bus takes you to the central plaza in Casablanca in just under an hour.
Once you reach the plaza, your next task is to locate a taxi to take you to your first Casablanca winery. Luckily, this is made simple by a taxi stand at one side of the plaza, with an information booth and everything. Tourist-proof! Love it.
We had some time to kill before our first winery, so we stopped at one of the grocery stores bordering the plaza for more drunk snacks. And to scope out the wine selection, of course.
If you don’t end up buying a bottle at the winery, you can always pick up insanely cheap Chilean wine at the grocery store!
After scoping out the grocery store and admiring the scenic plaza in Casablanca, we hopped in a taxi.
To get to our first winery, Indomita, the cost was 6,000/$9. There is a set cost per kilometer in the taxis, so our advice is to know how many kilometers you are traveling to avoid being up-charged (we didn’t).
Indomita winery was under 10 minutes away. We had given ourselves 2 full hours to get there from Valparaiso, and it ended up taking barely over an hour.
For once, we weren’t running late – we were actually early! I’m so proud of us!
Casablanca Valley Winery #1: Indomita Wines
Indomita is a large volume winery perched up on a hill with a huge sign that reminded us a little of the Hollywood sign.
Although it was not the best Valparaiso wine we sampled during our wine tasting, it’s worth a stop just to appreciate the incredible scenery!
The view from the front deck is absolutely gorgeous, and there are little walking trails through the vineyards that offer the perfect spot for a mini photoshoot. Which is what we did, since we still had some time to kill!
Finally, we began our tour and tasting. Cost: 10,000/$15 each.
Wine Tasting At Indomita Winery
Casablanca Valley is known for its white wines: the valley is situated in the perfect location between the mountains and the sea.
As the coastal fog and sea breeze sweep into the valley, it is stopped by the mountains and just hovers there, cooling the air and keeping everything nice and chilled. Turns out that white wines are best kept chilled both on the vine and in the bottle. Who knew?
Luckily for red wine lovers, most wineries in Chile (including Indomita) have multiple vineyards, all spread out over the other wine valleys so that you are able to taste white wines from grapes grown in the Casablanca Valley as well as reds that are grown elsewhere.
We tasted 4 wines at Indomita winery in the Casablanca Valley, most of them bright, fresh-tasting young wines.
After our wine tasting and tour, we were free to explore the grounds again or have lunch at their gorgeous, scenic restaurant.
I’d recommend eating lunch at Indomita – the other wineries we visited didn’t have restaurants, and the outdoor seating offers gorgeous, sweeping views of the valley. Plus, the menu looked fantastic.
We were trying to save as much cash as we could, so we nibbled on our almonds and cherries instead and asked the friendly staff at Indomita to call us a taxi.
Casablanca Valley Winery #2: Emiliana Organic Vineyards
The taxi to our next winery, Emiliana Organic Vineyards, cost 6,000/$9.
We were glad we had extra time to kill at Emiliana, because the gorgeous grounds are heaven for animal lovers like us!
Emiliana is the largest sustainable and organic winery in the world and it’s home to many resident animals who help produce its delicious wines!
We watched a family of guinea fowl scratch for bugs in the vineyard with their tiny chirping babies. Chickens relaxed in the grass next to a couple enjoying a picnic on the lawn.
But the stars of Emiliana winery are the alpacas!
Alpacas at Emiliana Winery in Valparaiso
Emiliana is home to a herd of adorable alpacas who benefit the winery by providing plenty of fresh compost fodder, pest control, and soft wool which is donated to the employees for their own uses.
That’s right … the alpacas work at the winery, helping to make it organic and sustainable.
Also, they’re the cutest animals ever. Just look at this cute little baby alpaca!
We tried to bribe the alpacas to be our friends with an apple, but they ignored us. Then we attempted our best alpaca noises (er, well, llama noises, technically, but we figured it might be similar).
After a few embarrassing attempts were met with nothing but haughty, fluffy disdain, we gave up.
Here’s what we learned: alpacas, unlike cats or dogs, aren’t interested in befriending humans. They prefer to keep all of their cuddly cuteness just out of arm’s length, preferring to idly derp at you from afar.
But then … we figured out the secret. (Ok, an employee at Emiliana told us, but whatever.) Alpacas love grape leaves, in a way that they do not, apparently, enjoy delicious fresh juicy apples (alpacas have weird taste in food, I guess).
The second we approached a sassy alpaca with a tasty leaf from a nearby vine, we made instant friends. I was even able to briefly pet my new alpaca friend while she ate from my hand!
Sure, it was a fleeting bond – it lasted exactly the length of time that it takes for an alpaca to munch on a leaf – but it was all we’d ever wanted (ok, actually, we wanted to take one home with us, but it was still pretty awesome).
Dear readers, now you know: you can bribe alpacas for friendship with grape leaves!
Why Emiliana is our favorite winery in the Casablanca Valley
After frolicking around the grounds with the animals for a while (and picking up a coffee at the cafe…wine makes us sleepy!), we were ready for our wine tour and tasting (cost: 14,000/$22).
Whereas our first tour at Indomita was all about the wine-making process, Emiliana’s tour focused on what happens before the grape is even picked, and how their sustainable, organic practices affect the taste and quality of the wine.
From using animal-produced compost (enriched with a spiritually-based combination of fresh organic herbs) to growing specific plants to enhance the insect population and soil quality, Emiliana is a fantastic standard for organic wineries.
Something else we loved about Emiliana winery was their social responsibility: in addition to providing their farmers with alpaca wool, Emiliana also gives each of their employees a small plot of land for farming crops other than grapes.
They can grow anything they want and keep the produce. Social responsibility is incredibly important to us, and this wine tour was a great glimpse into what it means for a vineyard to be ethically and environmentally sustainable.
Winetasting at Emiliana Winery
Emiliana offers four tour options: Premium Tour (winery tour and wine tasting), Tour and Cheese Pairing, Tour and Chocolate Pairing, and the Picnic Tour where guests are given a picnic basket at the end to enjoy on the grounds (along with a few friendly resident chickens who may stop by to say hello).
We opted for a cheese and wine pairing, which was a solid choice. I mean… isn’t cheese always the right option? (Cost: 17,000/$26 for one wine and cheese pairing, which was enough for us to share).
We tasted 4 wine and cheese combinations. We fell in love with 2 of the wines, both delicious red blends (the Coyam 7-wine blend was particularly incredible!).
We ended up buying a bottle to take home: a peppery blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and the Chilean specialty, Carmenere.
Casablanca Valley Winery #3: Bodegas RE Wine Farm
After bidding goodbye to our new Alpaca friends (who am I kidding, they were totally indifferent and their sass just makes me love them more) we hopped in a taxi to our last winery in the Casablanca Valley, Bodegas RE.
Bodegas RE was one of the most unique wineries we’ve ever visited: they invent their own blends, complete with unique blend names, such as Pinotel or Chardonnoir.
I love this because then even people like us who know next to nothing about wine can nod knowingly and say, “ah, yes. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, such a classic blend,” and smirk a lot and pretend we are experts.
The winery also produces olives and olive oil, so as part of our tasting we also got a pile of delicious olives, syrupy balsamic vinegar and olive oil, bread, and cheese.
One 19,000/$30 pairing was enough to share for both of us! Yay, saving money!
Our Brief Love Affair with Waygu Beef Jerky at Bodegas RE Winery
We were actually too tired at this point to go on our 3rd vineyard tour of the day, so instead, we savored our tasting and browsed the handicrafts and artisanal foods for sale.
We found ourselves curiously eying a packet of paper-thin Waygu beef jerky. Here is the ode that the world’s biggest dork my husband wrote about the Waygu beef jerky:
“An innocuous package sits perched on a wine barrel. It’s contents: paper thin strips reminiscent of manzanita tree bark. The price tag: 4000 Chilean Pesos. “Six bucks?!” you say in disgust. “It looks like giant pencil shavings!” You continue around the shop but you hear the faintest whisper of an echo: wagyu-yu-yu-yu… Surely the wind. You busy yourself with a display of artisan sea salts. You think you’ve found your souvenir. The wind howls: dry aged-aged-aged-aged… “Back, you wench! I shall not spend that much on jerky. I can get two bags, each twice your size, for that amount, you ghoul!” And yet you find your tongue getting wetter. Surely this is for the jar of sun-dried tomatoes you’ve just snatched up. Oh, you are no fool. This is the wicked embrace of dried meat. You plead with the salesperson: “A sample! A sample! My kingdom for a sample!” She gives a solemn shake of her head – an answer of dissent. “Damn you, wagyu!” Your heartbeat speeds. You’ve lost control. You reach for a bag. Ashamed and bested, you lock eyes with your partner. The two of you finally fill your mouths with the smoky and peppery flakes of beef, as delicate as a butterfly wing, as bangin’ the finest bacon you’ve ever had in your whole life.”
So basically, get the Waygu beef jerky from Bodegas RE winery in Valparaiso. It’s really good. And I promise my husband won’t write any more terrible prose about it.
Floating on a Waygu beef jerky and wine cloud, we taxi’d back to the nearby plaza in Casablanca for only 1,500/$2.30.
We road that high all the way back on the bus to Valparaiso (1,000/$1.50 each).
5 Ways to Make Wine Tasting at the Valparaiso Wineries Even More Budget Friendly
All told, our day of wine tasting in Casablanca Valley cost us 95,500/$145 or 47,750/$73 each – definitely more budget-friendly than any of the guided tours we found! (Note: we included only the tours/tastings and transit, not our purchases of wine bottles and Waygu beef jerky).
Here are our tips for making a day exploring the Valparaiso wineries even more budget-friendly:
- Share taxis: Taxis alone cost us 20,000/$30! The more people you can round up to go with you, the cheaper your day of wine tasting in Valparaiso without a tour will be!
- Optimize the taxi route: we recommend visiting Emiliana first, then Indomita, then Bodegas RE, so that the distance between each is shorter and thus costs less.
- Bring your own snacks. Crackers, cheese, and olives are great for pairing, but do not fill you up! If you don’t want to spend money on a nice lunch at a winery, bring your own snacks or lunch and picnic at one of the wineries, like Emiliana Organic Vineyards.
- Share tastings whenever possible. We sometimes splurged for a tasting + pairing, but when we did, we shared to keep the costs down. None of the wineries minded us sharing!
- Consider skipping the wine tour: Some people (including us!) find winery and vineyard tours fascinating, but if you’re looking to save money, you can always opt to just enjoy a tasting and skip the tour.
Overall, we had a fantastic day exploring the Casablanca Wine Region and wine tasting in Valparaiso without a tour, and highly recommend it!
3 Valparaiso Wineries to Visit When Wine Tasting Without a Tour
Below, you can find information for all 3 of the wineries we visited. Each is accessible by taxi from the Casablanca plaza, an inexpensive 1-hour bus ride from Valparaiso, Chile. Local taxi drives will know the location without needing an address.
Please note that you do need to reserve your tour & tasting at least 24 hours in advance. You can email or ask your hotel/hostel to call for you!
- Emiliana Organic Vineyards | Website | Email: info@emiliana.cl | Phone: +562 2 353 9130
- Bodegas RE | Website | Email: contacto@bodegasre.cl | Phone: +56 32 274 1234 or +56 9 934 59 114
- Indomita | Website | Contact Page | Phone:+56322153902 or +56 2 222317569
Where to stay in Valparaiso or Santiago
For our first night in Valparaiso, we stayed at Nomada Eco Hostel. We weren’t too impressed so we switched on our 2nd day and moved to Hostel Colombina which we much preferred!
If you’re staying in Santiago, both H RADO Boutique Hostel and Santiago Backpacker’s Hostel are great options, although we liked H.RADO best.
I hope you found our how-to guide to budget-friendly wine tasting in Valparaiso, Chile without a tour helpful and informative! Do you prefer tours, or are you more of a DIY type? Leave us a comment below!
Psst: Looking for more tips for travel in South America? Check out some of our other posts!
- What to Pack for South America: 32 Backpacking Essentials
- Argentina Wine Tasting & Ridiculous History with Mendoza Wine Camp
- 30 Things No One Tells You About Backpacking in South America
- 13 Things to Know Before You Go to Cusco and Machu Picchu, Peru
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Robert Price says
So helpful! Thank you so much for sharing. We are considering a wine guide but I think they are very expensive. After reading your article we are taking all of your tips and planning our wine tour.
Practical Wanderlust says
The wine tours are seriously good! We definitely recommend them! Go enjoy yourself 😉
Freddy says
Thank you very much for this article! Really helpful and detailed. we also did our own vineyard tour a few days ago in Casablanca and we just want to share the prices and recent experience we made. we did the tour with four people, so all prices must be divided by four:
For the buses to and from Casablanca we paid $11.200. There are several operators who go to Casablanca (we took turbus). On the way back we just waited for a bus at the bus stop in Casablanca. We also did the vineries Emiliana, Indomita and Bodegas RE. As there is kind of a fixed price for the taxis nowadays, we paid $24.000 in total ($7.000 to the vineries and $3.000 from Bodegas to the Casablanca Plaza). We hadn’t booked the vinetours in advance cause noone answered our email or phone. As we knew the start times for the tours from the websites we planned our arrival on that. Arriving at Emiliana it was no problem to book the tour (with tasting+ 2*cheese) for the four of us (cost $74.000). We highly recommend that tour, cause you can learn much about the organic vine farming! Our second stop was at Indomita. There we did no tour, but a ‘tasting’. We asked for a tasting and got a card of vines to choose from. Prices per glass were from $1.000 to $2.500. It is a great and cheap way to taste many vines, as you can try as many as you want and ask the waiter about some information of the vine. Our last stop was at Bodegas where we unfortunately were to late to do a tasting or try many vines as the vinery closed at 6pm sharp. Our advice in general is to just try some vines per glass instead of a whole tasting if u want to save some money. usually the stuff will give you information about the vine, you just have to ask.
Lia Garcia says
This is so helpful, Freddy! Thanks for helping keep our information up to date and accurate 🙂
Katharina says
Hey, we are just coming back from a wonderful day in Casablanca. Thanks to your blogpost travelling around was really easy and so much more fun than with a tour. We visited the exact same bodegas- great choice! Thank you so much for sharing! Best, Katharina from Berlin/Germany
Lia Garcia says
So glad you enjoyed it, Katharina!
Tine & Fabio says
Hi Lia!
We are heading to Valparaiso in a couple of days. Your winetastingtour looks exactly like what we had in mind for our last days in Chile.
After reading your post we had two thoughts: waw, that’s amazing, we should do the same. And also: how much time did you spent on the wineries? (So we could know when to reserve ? :))
Lia Garcia says
Great question! We spent about an hour and a half in each spot.
Tine & Fabio says
Perfect, thank you! We will be heading to Casablanca the day after tomorrow. 🙂
Juls says
This info was super helpful! Wine Tours here are extremely expensive.
We followed these tips yesterday and had a great (and much cheaper) day at the wineries!
Lia Garcia says
I’m so pleased to hear that!!
Julianne says
Hey Lia, what hostel did you stay at while in Chile? Would love to know so we could look into booking it. Thanks!
Lia says
We stayed at H RADO Boutique Hostel and Santiago Backpacker’s Hostel in Santiago (we liked H.RADO best).
In Valparaiso we started out staying at Nomada Eco Hostel, but we didn’t like it so we switched on our 2nd day up into the hills to Hostel Colombina, which we liked much better!
Jessica says
This was so fun to read, thanks!!
Kayla says
So helpful! Thank you so much for sharing. We are taking all of your tips and planning our diy wine tour day exactly based on your plan. Wouldn’t have known where to start without this!
Lia says
I’m so pleased that our post was helpful 🙂 Have an awesome time wine tasting and say hello to the alpacas at Emiliana for us!!
Nicholr says
This post was so helpful! We are doing a similar trip and your info is so great!!!
Alieke says
Thank you so much for this post! We used it thoroughly while doing a DIY wine tour in the Casablanca valley last week! I wouldn’t have known it was possible without reading this. Awesome!
Lia says
I’m so happy to hear that our post helped!! That’s exactly why we blog. So wonderful to hear feedback like this 🙂
Kathi Kamleitner says
Love this post! It’s great to read about how easy it is to organise a day trip like this without the help of agencies and tour companies 🙂 I’ll add this to my south america travel board as I’m hoping to visit Chile in the near future 🙂
Lia says
Thanks Kathi! Sometimes it can seem so daunting figuring out how to do things the cheap way without a tour that it’s easier to just pay more. But in this case, it actually is super easy!