Chile’s Lo Abarca region is located about an hour and a half from Santiago by car and just 15-20 minutes from the coast. Lo Abarca, is a sub-region of the larger San Antonio Valley not far from the better known Leyda Valley, both of which are encompassed within the even larger Aconcagua wine region. Both Lo Abarca and the Leyda Valley are situated closer to the coast, where the vineyards experience cool climate conditions–effected by the Humboldt current. As a result, Lo Abarca and Leyda Valley wineries consistently produce wines that are vibrant and fresh. They represent the coolest climate wines from the San Antonio region.
Casa Marin Winery is located in Lo Abarca, as close to the ocean as vineyards can get here (just 2 miles), an area where no other wineries have vineyards.
While Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir from coastal vineyards in the San Antonio region get the most attention, I found these areas to be extremely well suited to other varieties including but not limited to Riesling (which Casa Marin proves beyond a shadow of a doubt). That said, my favorite Sauvignon Blancs in Chile are from the Leyda Valley and one of my top two is from Casa Marin’s Lo Abarca vineyards.
Going Against the Grain: Investing in a Yet-Unknown Region
What is particularly unique about Casa Marin Winery is that, while they are located in both the San Antonio Valley and the Leyda Valley, their vineyard are located within the tiny village, and newly established D.O., of Lo Abarca, just two miles from the ocean. They are currently the only winery that has vineyards in the Lo Abarca D.O. and it was founder Maria Luz Marin who pushed towards getting the region to be recognized for its unique microclimate and established as an official D.O. The conditions in Lo Abarca are different enough to warrant establishing it as an official sub-region due to its incredible proximity to the coast which means that the vineyards experience significantly lower temperatures and less direct sunlight, as well as its unique limestone and marine deposit soils. Elsewhere in other coastal regions like the Leyda Valley, vineyards sit a bit farther from the coast and experience more sun, less rain, and more protection despite still being much cooler than the inland areas of the San Antonio and Aconcagua Valleys.
Casa Marin is also unique in that it was established quite recently, in 2000 and many of its vineyards are quite young being planted between 2001 and 2015. Founder María Luz Marin saw the potential for growing and producing amazing cool climate wines in the area of Lo Abarca (despite the many naysayers who didn’t believe this was a good idea) and set about building what is now the most awarded Chilean winery outside of Chile. Her son Felipe now does the winemaking, and the entire family is involved in the business.
Casa Marin Wines
Casa Marin Winery makes a few different wine labels, despite being such a small winery, that represent a difference in vineyard site, wine style, and/or price-point, and commercial availability. The two labels you go to the winery to experience are Casa Marin and Viñedos Lo Abarca. Under the Casa Marin label, the winery makes Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Riesling (this is my pick for #1 best white wine in Chile after my month of tasting everything I could get my hands on), Gewurztraminer, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and a Syrah Rosé.
Lo Abarca Wines
Casa Marin’s Lo Abarca range includes a Sauvignon Blanc (an absolutely stunning wine–seriously this was one of the top two Sauvignon Blancs in the country for me–and it’s only available in Chile), Pinot Noir, Grenache, Grenache-Syrah, and a Pet-Nat. These wines are made with grapes sourced exclusively from the winery’s Lo Abarca vineyards.
My Overall Opinion of Casa Marin’s Wines
What can I say about these wines? Every wine I tasted shone with elegant acidity, pure minerality, a lovely mouthfeel/texture, and was beautifully balanced.
After 2.5 weeks in Chile, during which time I’d attended numerous wine industry tastings, consumer wine tasting events, spent time at wineries in the Maipo Valley and Casablanca Valley, and hung out with Chilean winemakers and wine bar owners at every wine bar in Santiago, tasting as many wines from as many regions as possible–Casa Marin STUNNED me into silence at my first sip.
I almost missed my opportunity to taste at Casa Marin at all due to a punctured tire fiasco with our tiny rollerskate rental car which luckily happened when we were already at a winery–where the winemaker kindly had his cellarmaster put the spare tire on for us and gave us specific direction to a tire place for the next morning. This delay cost us an hour, so when we arrived at Casa Marin we had only 30 minutes to taste the wines before Felipe (the winemaker) had to go pick his son up from school. At my first sip of Viñedos Lo Abarca Sauvignon Blanc, I knew all of the effort was worth it and that I absolutely could NOT have left Chile without tasting these wines. Across the board, the wines were simply phenomenal.
Winery Size and Availability of the Wines in the U.S.
At under 12,000 case production, the winery is boutique in size by any country’s standards but especially in Chile, where so many of the wineries that have international recognition are often producing close to a million or many millions of cases. Normally, at these production sizes it would be unlikely that we’d see many of these bottles in the U.S. but in Chile, almost every winery sells a majority of their wines outside of Chile (in the export market). Casa Marin is a unique exception. Some of their wines are not even available outside of Chile, and the ones that are exported to the U.S. are only available in certain markets (you’ll find their Riesling for instance, in New York or on the East Coast but not in California).
According to most of the Chilean winemakers I met with, Chilean consumers have historically not been as interested in wine or wine tourism in Chile compared to consumers from other countries (this is not to say that no Chileans were drinking or buying Chilean wine, but most of the wine tourism in Chile was foreign and most of the wines have historically been sold in other markets like South America, the U.S., the Netherlands, etc.).
However, this is starting to change. Many of the wineries I visited in November 2022 said that the pandemic prompted a boost in business from locals, as well as, an increase in interest in visiting local wineries. Currently, Chile is poised for significant growth when it comes to local wine tourism and local wine consumption.
Visiting Casa Marin
Do you need to book in advance to visit Casa Marin Winery?
As Casa Marin is a small, family-owned winery it is necessary to make an appointment at least 24 hours in advance. You can email the winery at hospitality@casamarin.cl or fill out a reservation request form on their website.
Tasting, Tour, and Accommodation Options
Casa Marin winery offers private guided tours, several tasting flight options in their tasting room/cellar door, and a bed and breakfast experience ‘among the vines‘ at their Villa Marimar which sits on a hill surrounded by Sauvignon Blanc vines, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.