The jug wine global awards

The agronomist Luiz Henrique Marcon pulls some grapes from the vine and invites: "just try it! Sweet, delicate and with such subtle notes, get out a bad wine here? " Marcon open smile, while shows plastic boxes that farmers just fill with curls sauvignon blanc, in one of the 43 acres of vineyards, House in Andradas, sul de Minas. That afternoon, started the winter harvest Winery founded by your grandfather and expectations couldn''t be better.
Since the first vines of jug wine began to be replaced by developed by agricultural research company of Minas Gerais (Epamig), five years ago, the wine''s situation has changed. With a sparkling Muscat, a restaurant that gets 2000 visitors per month (paying for guided visits to the vineyards, the winery and cellar), 25% more employees and winemaking equipment running all year, the risk of having to stop producing, which prowled the House Geraldo a few years ago, now is past.
"If today we do not have to supply the wine market such demand is thanks to Epamig," says Marcon. "If it wasn''t for them, we were going to stay with a reputation for manufacturers of wine bottle for the rest of my life."
The upset happened particularly thanks to the work of the agronomist Murillo de Albuquerque Regina, of 57 years. During your undergraduate studies, Murillo has decided that if would dedicate to fruit because the culture keeps the man in the field. "This is not a machine sowing and harvesting," he says. "Every species of fruit need a pruning, an adulation." In other words: manpower trained, qualified and well remunerated.
Specializations, master''s, doctoral and postdoctoral made in Europe, when it was already a researcher at Epamig, called Murillo to the universe of wine. In the same direction walked in Caldas Research Institute, where he worked for 33 years. Until the year 1980, the work covered also fruits such as peach, fig and plum.
Change. It was in the field next to the imposing building of the Epamig, opened in 1936 by Getúlio Vargas, which Murillo has developed the technique of double pruning. Under normal conditions, the vines produce fruit in summer and sleep in winter. With pruning, they give a small harvest of summer and a large harvest in the winter, when the weather is more suited to the ripening of the grapes for wine. "The vines, which from 15 to 20 bunches a crop reached 54," says Isabella, Winemaker of the Epamig.
The technique was already used in the production of table grapes in northeastern Brazil and in countries like Thailand and Venezuela. To reverse the cycle, producers can put grapes on the market in the off season.
The technique had never been applied, however, in wine grapes. To some experts, this procedure reduces the lifetime of the vine. He also only occurs with the intensive use of phyto-hormones, which "cheat" the fruit and stimulates production in winter.
The first surveys were only carried out thanks to the scions of an Italian producer. "We started the tests with random varieties," he says. "The Syrah was the first that exploded with force." Producers, manufacturers and local governments helped with the research, spurred by prospects of triple productivity.
Proven success of grapes and wine, the demand for the work of the Epamig is now three times higher than the capacity of your attendance. In addition to producing and selling seedlings, the vinifica company and works with the winemakers. In addition to São Paulo and Minas Gerais, Goiás, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia already use the technique. "The altitude regions, with autumn and dry winters, sunny days and cold nights, lend themselves to make this type of wine," says the agronomist.