Cuba tries its hand at wine making

Havana-- Cuba's popular mojitos and daiquiris may soon be competing with a wide range of wines from the island, sold in attractive bottles with labels featuring exclusive designs by well-known Cuban artists.

Under the brands "Colonial," "Cortes," "Soroa" and "Castillo del Morro," red, white and rose Cuban wines are being marketed by two companies, both joint enterprises between the Cuban government and European firms. In both cases, the wines, unveiled at a wine fair in Havana's Hotel Nacional this week, are the fruit of home-grown vines. "This is the first batch of wine made from grapes harvested in Cuba," Nicolas Diana, the Spanish manager of Bodegas del Caribe, told EFE.

Three years ago, Bodegas del Caribe, incorporated in March 2002, planted 22 varieties of grape brought over from Spain with the goal of adapting them to the climate and soils of the island.

The businessman, who represents the Spanish firm Palacio de Arganza, said the company tested varieties of Spanish grapes in some 60 hectares (148 acres) in Bainoa, Batabano and Wajay, in Havana province.

The upshot is 4,000 cases of each type of wine the company has marketed since May in the island's main hotel chains and the network of stores that accept only U.S. dollars. "Wine has great potential in Cuba. People are demanding a quality Cuban wine," Diana said. "The grape is harvested, processed in Ceiba del Agua in aplant with the latest technology and also bottled here. In other words, the process, from start to finish, is done in Cuba," he said.

Diana predicted greater yields from the next harvest and the possibility of exporting to the Dominican Republic, Britain and Germany. Sara Tamargo, Bodegas del Caribe's assistant marketing manager, said that in additition to the red and white wines featured at the fair, a blush, "Castillo del Wajay," would be introduced in 2004, together with the brands "Isla del Sol" and "Palacio del Sol."

"A wine originally from Cuba, from Cuban vines, constitutes a curiosity for connoisseurs right now because Cuba does not have that tradition. We are taking advantage of this boom of sorts to make some sales and show the world we are capable of producing it."

The promotion of Cuban wines, under the slogan, "Wine is also culture," tries to tie the product to the best of the country's culture. That is why the labels feature designs by the island's visual artists.

In a similar vein, the partly-Italian-owned Bodegas San Cristobal is moving ahead with plans to harvest its first six hectares (15 acres) of vineyards in February 2004. The first seeds of the six varieties of grapes planted in the San Cristobal vineyards, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, were donated by the Italian cooperative Vivai Cooperativi di Rauscedo.

The vine stakes, planted at Bermejales, a farm at the foot of the Pinar del Rio mountains, should yield some 20 tons per hectare (2.5 acres) in two harvests a year. Bodegas de San Cristobal's marketing director, Maximo Palancar, called the outlook for next year's harvest "encouraging" and pointed out that the company's production plant, built in 1998, can produce up to four million liters of wine a year.