Alta Tierra vineyards

Here we are, 6000 feet up, in the highest vineyard I ever saw and I'm taking a Guanaco girl called 'Alta' for a walk. Such beautiful big eyes. Just wish she wouldn't spit at me so.

Jean Marc just emailed asked how we were enjoying his 'favourite vineyard in the world'. He, I and Anne Linder share a passion for the Alta Tierra vineyards that many find hard to understand.

I must try and explain.

It's a combination of the people, the place, the climate and the grapes. But then it always is. However here we are talking of extremes; Extreme Winemaking!

It was twenty years ago that Anne brought me the very first samples from here and I can still remember where I was then and the exact moment of their huge impact on my tongue. Flavours stronger and brighter than anything I'd ever known. And they came from a region that is virtually in the Atacama desert; the driest place on earth.

Puzzling, but we immediately joined this new adventure and became their first customers. We won them their first (of many) gold medals the certificate has pride of place here in their winery... says 'Tierra Alta Syrah 2002 from Direct Wines'!

The wines from here astonish. And they turn your beliefs about wine geography literally upside down. Previously we thought we had to go further south in Chile to get the cooler conditions for fruitier wines.

Turns out wrong. On the fringes of the desert here its actually cooler due to the cold winds from the cold sea and the Andes. And also the very clear high mountain air which causes temperatures to plummet the minute the sun goes down. (And is why there are so many Space Observatories here). Cold, clear nights are good for fruit. So is bright sun. And here the UV is three times stronger than in Australia.

They grow some of the world's best table grapes up here. Growing conditions are so incredible here they can start to harvest these at the end of November (which equates to May in N. Hemisphere!).
Wine grapes take longer; they are starting now.

Alta Tierra started with Giorgio Flessati. We had bought wine from the co-operative winery he ran up the Trento Valley north of Verona. His wines were nice but it was him we really liked; combination of sunny disposition, big brain and vast enthusiasms. So restless, the Trentino vineyards were just not enough, and he got interested in what his cousin Aldo was doing in northern Chile; growing grapes. Table grapes.

Together they set up a company called Falernia to see if wine could be made here... and we sent Jean-Marc there to work with his old friend and make a special range for us; the 'Alta Tierra'.

Giorgio says JMS has the key to the cellar and our master blender can do whatever he wants. So JMS loves this place. So do I. And now so do Barbara and our son Tom - who has come from Australia for a look see.

A guanaco is like a very pretty little llama. They had three here at Aldo's remote farm. But the Puma got two. It is very wild indeed up here.

Aldo came to Chile as a boy when his parents arrived with twenty families from the same village up in the Dolomites. Most didn't manage to stick it out and returned. But Aldo prospered, growing fruit in the arid soil irrigated by water from channels dug by the Inca.

He is a quiet, shy, smallish chap who you would not think had any genetic link to his big, strapping cousin Giorgio. At the airport Barbara took him for the driver as he grabbed her case. Fact is he is the most successful farmer in the valley with big acreages of vines for wine, table and brandy production.

But with Olga his wife they live in the same simple way they always have, surrounded by a large extended family of over 200! They make you feel so very welcome. They are just lovely. I don't suppose we'll ever be able to return the hospitality as Aldo doesn't like to travel. He just like being in his vineyards, in the eternal sunshine and always being home for Olga's lunch on the cool terrace looking at the great pink mountains.

It's the tireless Giorgio who travels the globe beating the drum for the wine of the Elqui Valley. Other wineries - who at first mocked - now buy grapes here. But Giorgio and Aldo's is still the only winery in the area. Tomorrow - the big tasting ...