(Wine-Searcher) - The winemaker for Viña Ventisquero talks to Adam Lechmere about growing grapes in Chile's extreme desert regions.

Felipe Tosso, chief winemaker at Chile's Viña Ventisquero, has his eye on a new stretch of land to make a wine even more extreme than the zero-rainfall Tara.

Ventisquero's Tara range consists of a Syrah-Merlot blend, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir from the world's driest desert, the Atacama in northern Chile. Parts of the this vast plateau go for decades without rain; some weather stations have never recorded rain. The average annual rainfall is 15mm.

Tosso and his colleagues at Ventisquero had a couple of goes at planting in this inhospitable, salty landscape (it is a mere 22 kilometers – 14 miles – from the Pacific). The first vineyards, in 2007, failed, and they quickly replanted. The first few vintages have been very well-received by the critics.

The area, Tosso says, is unique in many ways, not least for its 2000-meter (6560-feet) altitude, its stony soils in which nothing but the hardiest mesquite and saltbush can grow, and its cool climate. It is a true desert, but temperatures seldom go higher than 26C (79F), and plummet to 10C and lower at night. Young vines are irrigated using nets to catch the Pacific fogs. The resulting wines are fresh, fruity, but blessed with intense acidity.