Chile’s Elqui Valley boasts some of the worlds highest vineyards, as well as clear skies and purest sunshine. Today, thanks to the vision of Italian Giorgio Flessati, it makes great wines too, like this intense and peppery Carmenre-Syrah blend. Lying next to the Atacama Desert, the Elqui Valley seems an unlikely spot to grow high quality grapes.

However, a down draught from the Andes and the Pacifics Humboldt Current both help to moderate temperatures by day and ensure very cold nights.

In addition, the sunlight is exceptionally bright and snowmelt from the Andes provides all the irrigation water required.

Via 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 Carmenre is equally robust.

Deep bramble, cassis and spice character, it’s great with lamb. Best decanted.