Description Chile’s Elqui Valley lies next to the Atacama Desert – an unlikely spot to grow high quality wine grapes. But the climate is right, with a cool downdraught from the Andes and the Pacific’s Humboldt Current together ensuring moderate temperatures by day and chilly nights. In addition, snowmelt from the Andes provides all the irrigation water required. Viña Falernia, one of only two wineries in the valley, was built in the late 1990s by Italian Giorgio Flessati and won a Trophy with its first vintage. Elqui produces “some particularly gutsy Syrah at altitudes of over 2,000 metres” (World Atlas of Wine), and the Carmenère is equally robust. Deep and juicy with bramble, cassis and spice character. Delicious with lamb or beef stew and dumplings.
