Winning wines of the tropics.

• Author: Luxner, Larry

Traditionally, the need for big temperature variations and exacting soil conditions has limited the large-scale production of fine wine to locations at least thirty degrees north of the equator or at least thirty degrees south of the equator - but never in between.

No more. Distribuidora Pomar C.A., a division of Venezuela's Polar conglomerate, is using the latest high-tech irrigation and growing techniques to prove that wine can be a tropical product as well.

Francisco Gonzalez, general manager of Pomar, says his company has spent US$20 million over the last ten years developing a wine industry of which Venezuelans can be proud. "Pomar began ten years ago as a joint venture between Polar and Martell. Polar's food division has other products such as flour, corn oil, ice cream, and pasta, though it was always against the philosophy of the company to produce hard liquor."

Although Pomar's $2.5 million in annual wine sales amounts to only a tiny fractions of Polar's overall beer business, it is an area Gonzalez says has strong growth potential. "We began to distribute in Margarita Island about six months ago," he says. "We are getting a very favorable response, especially from foreign tourists, not only in Margarita but also in Puerto La Cruz. Many tourists look for typical wines from that country, and that has helped us."

In Margarita, a case of Vina Altagracia costs 7,000 bolivares (US$41) - a bargain for French or Italian tourists used to paying $10 for a single bottle of similar wine at home.

According to Gonzalez, Pomar developed its vineyards based on years of research by two Venezuelan educational institutions, the Centro de Desarrollo Viticola Tropical in Zulia state and the Grape Institute of the Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado in Lara state. Finally, after grafting French and Spanish grape varieties onto local Caribbean rootstock with the help of French experts, Pomar selected six varieties of red and five varieties of white wine for commercial exploitation.

Pomar's first label was Vina Altagracia (rose, white, and red). It then introduced Pomar Reserva, which is aged in oak barrels for a little over a year and in bottles for another two years. Pomar plans to start selling its 1993 vintage wine sometime early this year.

Currently, Pomar markets close to 100,000 cases of wine annually (including about eight hundred cases of sweet muscatel wine used by the Catholic church for mass). Five distilled and three sparkling...