Atacama

Chile's administrative Region III is also the Atacama wine region, with Copiapó Valley and Huasco Valley as its two subregions. In Huasco's Longomilla and Nicolasa vineyards, daily Pacific fog, known as camanchaca, brings a small increase in humidity around the vine leaves. Huasco has a history of growing grapes for pisco, a grape spirit. Atacama falls within the pisco-grape denomination-of-origin zone established by Decree Law 521. Still wine is also made here. The Tara Project began planting in the Atacama Desert in the early 2000s; its Huasco Valley Sauvignon Blanc is fermented with native yeasts, aged in concrete eggs and bottled unfiltered.