Colombia

South American country with a tropical climate and a relatively short history of viticulture. For long Colombia depended on imported wines and spirits from Spain and developed a taste for sweet fortified wines such as málaga. The initial output of the first vines planted here in the 1920s and 1930s was therefore directed towards aping this style of wine, as well as to the production of table grapes. When wine imports from non-South American countries were punitively taxed in the mid 1980s, however, consumers became accustomed to the dry table wines of Chile and Argentina and Colombia began to produce small quantities of dry wines from vinifera vines. The main grape-growing zone is in Boyacá department north east of the capital Bogotá. The country was thought to have 2,591 ha/6,400 acres of vines in 2013. Vines have to be defoliated by hand in order to provide a short period of dormancy (see tropical viticulture). Annual rainfall is 1,000 mm/39 in, although there are dry periods between December and March and between June and September. downy mildew is the principal hazard. isabella and Italia table grapes were grown in quantity but international varieties are now grown by the likes of Marqués de Puntalarga and Viñedo Ain Karim.