4 Best Sights in Pisco Elqui, El Norte Chico

About 4 km (3 miles) past Pisco Elqui lies this operational pisco distillery. Guided tours show you around its workings and culminate in the basement, where the original owner and his partners would raid the stock for prolonged, secretive drinking sessions. More clearheaded visitors should note that he and his friends also found time to amass a rather morbid collection of epithets, now displayed on the walls. If you want to get to the dregs of this valley´s historic distillery story, this is the site to visit.

Ancient viticulture meets avant garde techniques at this unimposing but extraordinary vineyard near the head of the Elqui Valley. Their two-hour tour begins with a drive through an eclectic mix of vines such as Carménère, Petit Verdot, Carignan, and Touriga Nacional. Next, see the barn housing maceration pools where, during harvest season, tourists can still help trample barefoot on the grapes. Finally, travel underground into a James Bond–esque room where giant concrete vats ferment the wine. After the tour, try three wines with a selection of cheese and dry fruit. If you visit one vineyard in Chile, make it this one.

On the way to Pisco Elqui is the tiny village of Montegrande, where Gabriela Mistral grew up and considered her hometown. Her family lived in the schoolhouse where her elder sister taught. This was later turned into a museum and now displays some relics from the poet's life. Visitors can also visit the Nobel Prize–winning poet's tomb on a nearby hillside.

In the older section of this pisco plant, maintained strictly for show, you can see the antiquated copper cauldrons and wooden barrels formerly used to distill the famous brand. The distillery arranges daily tours, followed by tastings of pisco sours. There is also an on-site restaurant.