Uruguay is the fourth-largest producer of wine in South America, with a production of 67,000 tonnes and of vineyards in 2012. It is most known for red wines produced from Tannat grapes, but white wines made from Albariño are beginning to receive attention internationally.
History
The modern wine industry in Uruguay dates back to 1870, and the wine industry was started by immigrants of mainly Basque and Italian origin. In 1870, Tannat was introduced to the country by Don Pascual Harriague, a Basque. Albariño was introduced to Uruguay in 1954 by immigrants from A Coruña, in the Galician region of Spain. When the Mercosur free trade association started to take shape in the late 1980s, Uruguay took steps to increase the quality of its wines and stepped up its marketing efforts, due to fear of being out-competed by Brazilian wines and Argentine wines, which had lowerproduction costs.
Classification system
There are two levels of classification for Uruguay wines:
Vino de calidad preferente, a "quality wine" category. Wines must be made from Vitis vinifera varieties and are required to be sold in bottles of 75 cl or smaller.
Vino común, a "table wine" category. VC wines are often sold in demijohns and tetra paks, and much of it is rosé.
Wine regions
Uruguay's wine regions correspond to its administrative regions. While the country's other forms of agriculture are grouped into cardinal-intercardinal-oriented zones, which are then further divided bydepartments, there has never been an official grouping of wine regions into the larger zones – based on publications released by the :es:Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca |Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fish. The majority of vineyards and wineries are located in the hills north of the capital Montevideo, particularly in the departments: Canelones, Montevideo, Colonia, and San José. With the disappearance of vineyards in Flores, Rio Negro, and Treinta y Tres, roughly from 1989-2007, there are currently vineyards in 15 out of 19 departments.
