Chono (Vina Geo Wines) is a modern and thoroughly quality-conscious Chilean wine producer, the brainchild of Alvaro Espinoza, who acted as consultant winemaker in its early years and established its reputation for identifying and nurturing individual red wines which demonstrate a real sense of place.

The Elqui Valley is the most Northerly of the Chilean wine regions, famous mostly for its wonderfully clear skies and a resulting proliferation of observatories and star gazers. Basking in semi-arid terrain to the east of the city of La Serena, the vines are photogenic, tempered somewhat by the cooling influence of the Pacific Ocean. Here Syrah has found its homestead, and here Alvaro Espinoza has grappled successfully with this famously temperamental varietal.

The Chono exhibits a purity of Syrah fruit seldom encountered outside the Northern Rhône. This is achieved, incredibly, without recourse to oak, the quality of the fruit lending classic Syrah aromatics and a palate which is rich and generous yet also precise and linear. It is encouraging that the trend to regionality, whereby particular areas become recognised for particular varieties, is now evidenced more and more in Chile, a recognition of both the diversity and quality of its indigenous soils.