“They thought we were loco,” says Giorgio Flessati, winemaker at Vina Mayu. A common story for pioneers and winemakers who push the boundaries. And fifteen years ago anyone would have thought Giorgio and his cousin Aldo Olivier and co-partner at Vina Falernia were crazy for planting vines in Elqui. A land of extremes, Elqui Valley is on the edge of the Atacama Desert, has over 340 days of sunshine a year, almost no rainfall, can reach the high 30s during the day with some of the purest sunlight in the world – almost 10 times more solar radiation than in Europe.
These diurnal extremes would make winemaking impossible if it wasn’t for the polar opposite nocturnally: the temperature plummets, a soggy sea fog rolls in, and the vines wake up cool and moist. During the daytime you might be in a shorts and T-shirt, but at night you’ll need a blanket as Elqui is in fact considered a cool climate for wine. “Climatically it’s extremely cold and windy,” says Paul Hobbs, a flying winemaker who consults for Vina San Pedro who make wine in Elqui. “It has very cold nights and there’s a wind tunnel coming in from the sea.”