Page 50 - Grapevine July-August 2015

International News

and complicated history. The two countries would Bodegas Pomar Vineyard harvests grapes twice a
now appear to be at loggerheads on foreign poli- year where most other temperate zone wineries only
cy and economical socio political reform. Coming have one harvest per year; this is because essential-
under this level of scrutiny and gaining further ly there is no winter. The first harvest is in March,
attention from the media means that Venezuela has
been brought firmly into the spotlight in more ways
than one. The repercussions have taken a rather
sizeable bite out some of its more major corpora-
tion’s strong holdings.

Per capita this is one of the smaller wine produc- and a second harvest in September with the further
ing regions in the countries of the Americas. The aid of a little horticultural ingenuity and a lucky,
annual production of still and sparkling wines from semi-arid climate.
fresh grapes in Venezuela is about 912,000 bottles,
of which 840,000 are produced by Bodegas Pomar, The first label Pomar came out with was Viña
while the annual production of wine aerated from Altagracia, a rosé, white and red. It then introduced
concentrated must is equal to about 7 million bot- Pomar Reserve, an aged wine made in oak barrels
tles. Venezuela is set at a greater distance from the for a little over a year, and in bottles for another
global marketplace than many other more afflu- two years. In 1992 Pomar won a gold medal for
ent wine producing countries like New Zealand, its white Viña Altagracia Blanco at the VII World
Australia, South Africa and Chile. Aside from its Wine Congress in Brussels, and a bronze medal
socio-political and economic difficulties, Venezuela for its red Viña Altagracia Tinto, at the Challenge
is still a valid an identifiable source of wine and International du Vin Blaye-Bourg in Bordeaux. Half
rum wine which offers a unique and individual vari- a dozen more medals have followed for Pomar in
ety, and is a little more independent and rustic. more recent years. Bodegas Pomar is the only trop-
ical winery in Venezuela, and was the very the first
The government’s complex currency system has tropical winery in the world. Mr. Lorenzo Mendoza
led to the exploitation of outrageous schemes by is acting president and C.E.O. of Empresas Polar,
importers who inflate the value of goods brought Venezuela’s largest privately held company, which
into the country to snatch American dollars at commands an 80% share of the country’s beer mar-
rock-bottom exchange rates. Sometimes shipments ket. The market for wine has shrunk however due to
are faked altogether and nothing at all is import- decreased purchasing power in Venezuela. Bodegas
ed. The importers then pocket the dollars that the Pomar faces stiff competition on imports from
government provides, or sell some of the money Argentina and Chile.
for huge profits on the soaring black market in
Venezuela for the American currency. Tens of bil-
lions of dollars needed for vital imports have been
drained this way from Venezuela’s economy. The
effect of this becomes even greater with the further
depreciation of oil prices. Oil is Venezuela’s one
and only major export.

In 1985, Empresas Polar with the Martell House
of France founded Bodegas Pomar, the first win-
ery wine production on a commercial scale in
Venezuela and the tropics. The vineyards are locat-
ed in Altagracia (Carora), Lara. Carora Fourteen
individual varieties of white grapes and inks were
produced, eight of which gave excellent results. The

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