Located in the heights of Mariposa hill (Butterfly hill), close to one of the famous Pablo Neruda’s houses, “La Sebastiana” and right on the middle of the natural amphitheatre of Valparaiso, the hotel displays beautiful wide views of the city, port, hills, and even the sand dunes to the north.
The owner, Grant Phelps, is a kiwi Winemaker who has worked in the industry for more than 30 years, in Chile he has worked as the head wine maker for wineries Viu Manent (Colchagua) and Casas del Bosque (Casablanca) and has great passion for Chilean wine, this is what moved him to do a wine inspired hotel.
This hotel originated from the idea of creating a place in Valparaiso, where tourists could experience the beautiful and dynamic port city of Valparaiso, while learning in a broader way about Chilean wine and also being constantly in the presence of sustainable elements and practices, the first statement towards sustainability being the building itself, which was built with 25 reused shipping containers, incorporating materials for finishes that has been recycled or upcycled. Walking around the building is an experience that we hope will widen our guests’ views over what sustainability is. By the time we were designing the project, sustainable practices were not very common in Chile, and it was important for us to bring the subject and idea to the table so people could be more aware of the possibilities. The building was made with 70% recycled or repurposed materials, all of the containers that were used had been in circulation for 10 years or more, the insulation we installed is made of recycled newspaper or rubber, and most of our furniture is made with recycled wood from pallets used in the wine industry, wine barrels, old tubs, container walls or container doors that we removed to turn the containers into a habitable building, we also incorporated solar panels for energy and installed a system to reuse grey water.
We wanted to approach the sustainability concept in all it meanings, so we always try to follow that path, respecting environmental, social and economic sustainability,
In the social aspect, we give priority to hiring as local as possible, we have participated and now have a programme ourselves to bring international artists to the neighbourhood and intervene walls with high quality graffiti art, by this action we want to reinforce and to decentralise the touristic areas in the city, and there for re activate the local businesses of the neighbourhood. The economic sustainability aspect is very important for us, specially the relations we have with the local wine producers, we bet for responsible commerce and fair prices for wines, we want all our guests to get to know our providers, we do so through the wine list of the rooftop bar, and the “minibar” which is really a display of wines we’ve carefully selected so our guest can have a good idea of the very interesting wines that are being made in Chile, by very passionate and talented people. It’s important for us that our guests get a better idea of the very wide range of wine varieties being made in our beautiful country. In this aspect we also provide wine tours options to the closest valleys (San Antonio and Casablanca), with all the wineries information they need, wineries that we also have on the wine list of the rooms, so it is a full circle experience.
Another important aspect of the project is how we’ve incorporated art in every corner of the building, by embracing Valparaiso street art identity, we have invited local and international artists to paint inside every room and common areas of the hotel, and we also work with local artist displaying one piece of their work in every room, this art is available for purchasing as well, the idea is to be a platform for local and international artist to broadcast their art and hopefully bring our guests to see the artistic value in the city and the country.
Coming to Winebox Valparaiso we want our guests to experience this vibrant city through art, wine and sustainability.
