96 points Tim Atkin. This exceptional wine from Vina Ventisquero is part of their Tara Atacama project to produce fine wines from the most extreme wine region in the world, the Atacama, Chile. One of the driest regions of the world, many obstacles have been overcome by the team, and the results are a range of wines with beautiful purity of fruit & striking minerality. Exceedingly low volumes of each vintage are produced by entirely artisanal processes. The grapes are harvested 100% by hand, and in the Chardonnays case, foot-crushed. They have no filtration, use native yeasts only with no addition of bacteria for malolactic fermentation and apply just a small dose of SO2 post fermentation. These methods, Winemaker Galaz believes, give the wines the freedom to express their extreme origin.

Taste

50% of the grapes were left as whole clusters. The grapes were pressed by foot. No products were added to the must. All of the must was fermented with ambient yeasts in stainless steel barrels. The wine was aged for 21 months in stainless steel barrels in order to retain the identity of the place the grapes come from: the Atacama Desert.

This wine organoleptically represents its origin in the cool desert of northern Chile. The nose is essentially mineral, revealing aromas of stones and chalk, together with austere, delicate notes of green cherimoya (or custard apple) and white stone fruits. The mouth is structured, linear and taut, providing great tension and persistence in the finish. This is a unique wine with great personality and character.

About the Producer

Viña Ventisquero and their trio of avant-garde winemakers Alejandro Galaz, Felipe Tosso and Sergio Hormazabal who, accepted the somewhat sizeable challenge back in 2007, are on a mission to bring the extreme wines of Chiles unchartered Atacama Desert to the top of the world stage.

Making wine in Chiles most northerly vineyards, and in one of the driest regions on earth, was never going to be easy. Situated 22km from the Pacific Ocean coast, and over 350km north of Santiago, vineyards experience warm days (averaging 24oC during the ripening season), cold nights and foggy mornings.

Soils suffer from extreme salinity, are difficult to irrigate and the general hostility of the environment causes several and severe problems both for vineyard growth and wine production.

Named after the Tara salt flat in northern Chile, in the worlds driest desert, the immense Atacama, where just 20mm of rain fall each year, these wines are a triumph of determination. The area is influenced by the nearby Pacific Ocean and every morning the land is blanketed by the coastal fog known as the Camanchaca, which offers a brief respite to the sun-baked landscapes of Northern Chile. With this unique geography and in the absence of coastal mountains, the winds blow directly from the ocean to the vineyard, transforming the otherwise desert climate into a cool, quasi-Mediterranean climate. 

Wine Press / Awards

96 points Tim Atkin

97 points La Cav & Descorchados

94 points Robert Parker