Edged up against the city limits of Santiago, the Maipo Valley is one of Chile's oldest wine regions, and because of its proximity to the capital many wineries are headquartered there.
This is where the huge wineries Concha y Toro and Cousiño-Macul are located, the latter with its massive, cavernous cellars and stately 125-acre (50-hectare) park, a dreamlike expanse of private gardens tended by fifteen full-time gardeners.
Maipo is one of the five sub-valleys of the Valle Central and, with Colchagua, one of the two most renowned — it is from these two districts that most of Chile's so-called icon wines are sourced.
It was in Maipo that the joint-venture team of Château Mouton-Rothschild and Concha y Toro debuted their Bordeaux-style blend Almaviva at $70 a bottle.
Chile's high-priced icon cabernets and cabernet blends are polished wines with concentrated, complex flavours and firm structure.
