Cuba has challenged humidity and less than propitious weather to produce quality artisan wines, based on fermenting tropical fruits such as guava, pineapple, orange, papaya, guanabana and mango.
Noel Morales Rojas, president of the National Artisan Winemakers' Organization, reported that as early as 1983, winemakers from several provinces were participating in competitions, and in 1991 the group and its leadership body was constituted, with founding members from Pinar del Río, Havana, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila and Holguín.
He added that winemaking has been steadily expanding since then, and currently 32 clubs exist around the country, in all provinces except Artemisa and Mayabeque, with Ciego de Ávila standing out for the most participants.
The clubs have as their fundamental objective the promotion of both making and enjoying wine within Cuban society, thus contributing to recuperating traditions first introduced by the Spanish, said Rolando Guerras Coro, president of the western coordinating committee and the local club in Viniprince, Pinar del Río.
Cuban wines are different from those crafted abroad given their brix grade, which reflects residual sugars and alcohol. They are mostly sweet and semi-sweet, since these are the best received within the country. Our wines generally have high brix, and a low volume of alcohol, while those from colder countries tend to be drier, with higher levels of alcohol.
Most of the world's wine is, of course, based on grapes, but the humidity in Cuba conspires against their cultivation, and most varieties do not thrive. Thus, at times, tropical wines are not accepted as such, and winemakers face the challenge of promoting their products in the international market.
Guerras Coro reported that comparisons made by persons from other countries reveal that our wines are of high quality, since they are produced by artisans who age them longer, which develops the taste. But since Cuban wines have yet to be well received internationally, the task at hand is to work on drier varieties, he said.
In any event, the goal is to continue improving quality, which Guerras believes will be achieved with greater dissemination of the work being done in tasting workshops, which are allowing Cuban winemakers to develop the use of their five senses to evaluate samples.
Luis Alberto Bermúdez Rodríguez, a winemaker in Holguín, added that artisan winemakers do not always have access to instruments to measure quality parameters, and face poor environmental conditions most of the year.
Nevertheless, results on a national level, and government recognition in many areas, have allowed some producers to improve their working conditions, with some signing contracts with restaurants, both state and private, where their wines are offered at reasonable prices and have been appreciated.
Regarding the special characteristics of tropical Cuban wines, Bermúdez Rodríguez commented that research has shown that the fruit's properties remain present in the final product, despite the fermentation process, at times even more so than is the case with grapes.
The expansion of self-employment and cooperatives in the country, and new relations with the state, have benefitted the winemakers' clubs, since sales have expanded and access to prime materials is more stable.
The work of Cuba's winemakers was recognized at the 25th Festival of Artisan Wines, held February 8-11, in Havana's Rancho Boyeros Fairgrounds, with the participation of 130 producers.
Competitions were held in eight wine categories: white, rosé, red, bubbly, dry, semi-dry, sweet and semi-sweet; and the provinces which came away with the most prizes were Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila, Pinar del Río, Holguín and Villa Clara.
Luis Bermúdez Rodríguez won the Grand Prize with a semi-sweet pineapple-banana wine, from 2013, 12.8 brix, along with the prize for this category.
