Montes Apalta: Where Gravity, Feng Shui and the Outer Limits Meet

(Lto R) Danilo Buvinic, CMO; Montes , Ajit Balgi, Valerine OCampo, Sommelier Brandabout Wines

 Some wineries are places you visit to taste wine. Others make you want to understand the wine, the landscape and the philosophy behind it. Montes in Apalta belongs firmly in the latter category. Set in the Apalta area of Chile's Colchagua Valley, Viña Montes combines premium winemaking with an elaborate visitor experience. Its gravity-flow winery incorporates Feng Shui principles, its vineyards extend into some of Chile's most cool sites, and its destination restaurant brings the open-fire cooking of Argentine chef Francis Mallmann into the picture. Montes was ranked No. 10 in The World's 50 Best Vineyards 2025.
Apalta and the Colchagua Story
Apalta is one of the distinctive sub-regions of Colchagua, surrounded by hills that create a sheltered environment for viticulture. It has become particularly associated with premium red wines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère and Syrah. Marchigüe, also within the broader Colchagua Valley, offers a different expression, with greater influence from the coast. The distinction matters because Colchagua is not a single homogeneous terroir; changes in topography and climate create noticeably different growing conditions within the valley.
Montes has built much of its premium identity around these differences. 
A Winery Built Around Gravity and Feng Shui
The Montes winery is perhaps as interesting as the wines. It's design incorporates Feng Shui principles, with the architecture intended to create harmony between the building and its surroundings. Water, wood, earth, metal and fire are incorporated into the design. The winery's cellar also uses Gregorian chants as part of its distinctive atmosphere. More practically, the winery uses gravity-flow technology. Its design allows grapes and wine to move between stages with the assistance of gravity, reducing the need for mechanical pumping. It is an interesting example of architecture serving both a philosophical and practical purpose.
Pushing Towards the “Outer Limits”
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Montes story is that its exploration of terroir doesn't stop at Apalta. The Outer Limits range comes from vineyards in different, sometimes extreme environments. Most notably, Montes planted in Zapallar in Aconcagua Costa, a coastal area influenced strongly by the Pacific Ocean. The contrast with Apalta is striking. Montes' Outer Limits Sauvignon Blanc comes from Zapallar and is a fresh, crisp, dry, cool-climate expression, with passion fruit, lime and grapefruit notes and pronounced acidity. The Outer Limits Syrah is equally intriguing. The coastal site produces a Syrah with vibrant acidity, red-fruit character and fine tannins rather than the heavy, ripe profile often associated with warmer climates. Montes was an early pioneer in developing Zapallar as a wine-growing site. The vineyards experience strong coastal influence from the Pacific as well as the Cordillera de la Costa. The name Outer Limits therefore makes sense. These wines are an exploration of what happens when varieties are planted outside their obvious comfort zones.

Hand-Picked Fruit
There is also considerable manual intervention behind the wines. Montes' technical material for Outer Limits Sauvignon Blanc, for example, describes grapes being hand-picked early in the morning into 12-kg trays, followed by refrigerated transport and careful bunch selection.
The Outer Limits Syrah is similarly harvested by hand in small boxes during the cooler morning hours. At the premium end, selection becomes even more rigorous. The philosophy is straightforward: if you're trying to make a serious wine, the quality of the fruit entering the winery matters enormously.
The Alpha Proposition
Montes Alpha is central to the winery's premiumisation story. The range helped establish Montes as a producer of high-end Chilean wine, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot among its better-known expressions. At the top of the portfolio are wines such as Alpha M, Montes Folly and Purple Angel, which feature prominently in the winery's visitor experiences.
The premiumisation philosophy isn't simply about creating an expensive wine. It is about vineyard selection, lower yields, careful harvesting, rigorous fruit selection and precise winemaking.
Fuegos de Apalta
The wine experience doesn't end at the cellar. At the estate is Fuegos de Apalta, the destination restaurant associated with Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. Its cooking revolves around fire, with meats, fish and vegetables roasted, smoked and baked over different types of fire.

Winemaker Santiago Izcúe Gana

Visiting Montes
Montes offers several visitor experiences. The Icon Tour costs CLP 50,000 per person and includes two Montes Alpha wines, an Outer Limits and an Icon wine. The Double Icon costs CLP 65,000 and includes Montes Alpha, Outer Limits and two Icon wines. The Andes Deluxe, also CLP 65,000, brings together wines from Montes in Chile and Kaiken in Argentina. The Sunset experience costs CLP 65,000 and includes four wines with cheese and homemade sweets. It operates from October to March. For serious wine enthusiasts, the Evolution Tour is particularly interesting. It is a private two-hour experience for up to six people, priced at CLP 1.2 million per group. The experience features a vertical tasting of four older vintages of an Icon wine such as Montes Alpha M or Montes Folly, guided by a wine specialist. There is also a Wine & Dine experience combining the Evolution tasting with a premium menu at Fuegos de Apalta.
More Than a Winery Visit
What makes Montes memorable is the way the pieces come together. Feng Shui in the architecture. Gravity in the winery. Hand-picked grapes in the vineyards. The cool Pacific influence of Zapallar. The slopes of Apalta. Fire at Fuegos de Apalta. And a premium wine philosophy built over decades. The result is more than a tasting.  It is a window into how Chile can turn geography, experimentation and winemaking into a complete wine experience.
P.S. The Chiloé Experiment
Montes' search for new terroirs has taken it far beyond Apalta and Zapallar. In 2018, the winery planted vines on Mechuque Island in the Chiloé archipelago of southern Chile, one of its most ambitious vineyard experiments.
The cool, wet maritime climate makes viticulture challenging, but Montes is exploring varieties including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño and Riesling. The first harvest came in 2021. Like the Outer Limits wines, the Chiloé project is less about following convention and more about asking a simple question: how far can Chilean viticulture go?
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