Wine Tours in Arequipa and Majes
Arequipa is Peru´s second city and is nicknamed the “white city” for the beautiful stone buildings in the historic centre made from the local, light-coloured volcanic stone sillar. It is ringed by volcanoes and is the gateway to the stunning Colca Canyon. This is what most people will learn about Arequipa before they come.
We live here but what we didn’t know, until recently, is that certain parts of this region were the first in South America to be planted with vines by the Conquistadors over 500 years ago. We have explored several picturesque valleys and can now add wine and Pisco day trips and plus multi-day stays from Arequipa to the list of tours possible in Peru. There are a number of non-wine visits to be blended into our trips too, so we have plenty to keep you busy.
Day Trips from Arequipa
We never want to drive more than 90 minutes one way on our day trips. Sometimes we have to but, if we can avoid it a much better day out is enjoyed by our clients. More time exploring and tasting, and less time spent in the vehicle is always a good thing.
Happily, there is a perfect location for a wine day trip from Arequipa. The lovely little valley of Vitor is just a 75-minute drive from the centre of the white city. The big thing about Vitor is the sheer number of very old clay amphorae you can see, it is quite astounding. We have written a blog on the visits here so feel free to have a read and whet your appetite. As you will see below we can add Vitor on the way to Corire for a great multi-day trip.
Multi-day trips from Arequipa
The Camana river is reached after dropping into a spectacular desert canyon, totally arid conditions surround you but a carpet of green is in evidence way below you as you arrive at the lip. If you drove directly from Arequipa this valley is just over 3 hours away, but we will break the journey in Vitor, roughly halfway through the trip, and enjoy some visits and lunch as we have described in our blog.
This Camana river valley is centred on the small, slightly ramshackle town of Corire which is itself surrounded by lush cultivated land and includes a number of rustic, historic wineries. We recommend spending 2 nights away from Arequipa and an overview of what such a trip could look like is shown below:
- Day 1
- Leave Arequipa after breakfast – drive to Vitor
- Enjoy a tour and tasting at the Hacienda del Abuelo winery
- Visit the Socabon winery for a tour, tasting and a late lunch
- Drive to Corire and check into your hotel – Posada Picardo is our favourite
- Day 2
- Visit the Reinoso winery for a tour and tasting
- Take a look at the Majes tradition winery with a tasting
- A short drive back to the hotel (or local restaurant) for lunch
- Late afternoon visit to the spectacular petroglyphs of Toro Muerto
- Day 3
- Marvel at the ancient amphorae in the Marques de Toran winery, with a tasting
- Visit the Cepas de Loro winery for a tasting of their wines and Piscos
- Late lunch along the route
- Drive back to Arequipa, arriving early evening.
As we have mentioned before, Pisco is the mainstay of the wineries in the Arequipa region, after that in priority come the sweet wines, called semi-seco here, with most being economic and not very good quality, unfortunately. However, slowly but surely owners and winemakers are placing more emphasis on producing higher quality dry wines, in red, white and rose. Cepas de Loro is a great example of this, as are several forward-thinking producers from Siguas, Majes, Vitor and also Moquegua, which will be covered in another section of our website.
We had seen on social media that Cepas de Loro had a couple of dry wines but we didn’t know anything about them. Their website shows no dry wines at all which doesn’t help! So we didn’t expect much but when we visited and met the owners we were pleasantly surprised. The welcome we were given by Cesar Uyen (both junior and senior) was very warm indeed and they are very enthusiastic about both improving their tourism facilities and their dry wine production. You will see photos here of their old winery that visitors can see, complete with clay amphorae and stone lagars, well worth the visit while in the area, plus their wines are quite good and improving all the time.
Another noteworthy visit while in this valley is the Marques de Toran winery. Again we didn’t know anything about their products beforehand but as Malka had read that they have the oldest amphorae in Peru (which we previously thought was from 1550) we had to see for ourselves. Unless anyone can contradict me, they do in fact have the oldest clay vessel, dated 816 (the year is not missing a 1 at the start!). The winery has several examples, which would have been made under Moorish rule in Spain and then brought to Peru by the Conquistadors. It is extraordinary that these treasures of winemaking history are still in one piece.
During your time with us, we will try to blend in some non-wine-related visits to round out the tour. That might be the Querulpa dinosaur park which features actual dinosaur footprints or the impressive Toro Muerto petroglyphs. So it is easy to see how we can keep your brains and palates very well entertained during this trip so just drop us an email to find out more.
