The best wines of Ecuador

Discovering the wine region of Ecuador

Ecuador is a country located on the Pacific coast of northern South America. There are only a few hundred hectares of Vineyards and rum and beer are produced in much larger quantities. It is remarkable, however, that Ecuador has wine production: the equator, which gave the country its name, runs through its northern third. If an exception to the theory of the wine belt (the latitudes between which winemaking can be effectively practiced) was needed, Ecuador provides it.

Only the Andean topography of Ecuador's interior makes quality viticulture possible. Over the millennia, the peaks of the northern Andes have risen to altitudes well over 4,500 meters (15,000 feet), taking with them many hectares of what were once low-lying coastal plains. It is in these cooler, mid-altitude areas that Ecuadorian wine is produced, primarily from members of the robust and prolific Muscat family. The annual climatic cycle of the Ecuadorian highlands is such that the vines experience a period of dormancy during what is considered winter on the equator.

Without this, the plants do not have the opportunity to recover from their fruiting periods, their wood does not harden and, as a result, the fruit they produce is of lesser quality for wine making. In the coastal plains below, where humidity is high and sunshine is extreme in intensity and duration, the vines produce up to three harvests per year. A similar situation occurs on the other side of the Pacific in Vietnam, where the difference between the wines of the highlands and the lowlands is striking. Pruning and other vine management techniques can be used to control fruiting in these sweltering conditions, resulting in a single harvest per year, but the quality is rarely high.