As a Peruvian, I have to admit that Peru is not very active at marketing its wines. While Peru has been making wine way before Chile, Argentina and California, virtually nobody knows anything about it. Until recently, Peruvian wine exports were very limited. This is because Peruvian wine production has traditionally been quite low when compared to other more commercially developed countries.

Peru's micro wine production has actually played to their favor though, by allowing them the time to experiment with different blends and wine making techniques without getting a reputation for low quality wines. Instead, Peruvian wine exports have arrived on the market as a seeming newcomer with surprisingly high quality. In fact, you could be forgiven for not even knowing that Peru has a wine industry.

The wine industry in Peru has actually been around far longer than most people realize. Wine grapes were first introduced to Peru by the Spanish conquistador Marques Francisco de Cervantes who visited there during the sixteenth century. Ever since then, Peruvians have been working on perfecting their wine growing techniques. Today, wine makers in the province of Ica (just south of Lima) are producing some very good wines. Peruvians know this well and now the rest of the world is finding out too.

 

Here in Houston it is very hard, if not impossible, to find Peruvian wines (let alone GOOD Peruvian wines). But thanks to the research skills of a small local wine distributor, I was identified as a Peruvian and a potential buyer of their wines. So I tasted some of them yesterday and was really impressed with one of them: Intipalka Tannat by the Queirolo family winery. Now...just because it is Peruvian doesn't mean I will buy it. As a matter of fact I tried others that didn't impress me. But this Tannat is really good!