A wine from perhaps the most unique terroir in the world: these wines are named after the Tara salt flats in northern Chile, the world's driest desert with only 20mm of rainfall. Being just 22km from the ocean, and with no mountain to block its influence, the cold fog rolls in and its cooling, moistening influence enables an extreme form of viticulture. The soils are calcarious and highly saline. So much so that the first vines planted here, (planted on salt-resistant rootstocks), succumbed to the salinity. New vines were planted on their own roots, which survived the conditions, against the odds. Even so, growth is stunted by the harsh conditions, resulting in an extended, slow growing period and very low yields. This creates incredible concentration in the grapes and resulting wines. Both the Chardonnay and Syrah come from a tiny vineyard of only 4.5 ha.
Winemaking is very low intervention - hand-harvesting of whole-bunches, native yeast fermentation, no addition of sulphur dioxide until bottling, and with stainless steel or neutral oak vessels to really allow the character of the terroir to shine.
The result is a wine of incredible freshness, delicacy and what I can only describe as 'sapidity': saline, mineral, mouthwatering and precise.
