John Dickenson

Viticultural geography: an introduction to the literature in English.

Abstract Contemporary geography has greatly extended its interests beyond traditional concerns with maps, and the location and description of places. A recent and expanding area of study is in geographical aspects of viticulture. This paper provides a bibliographic introduction to such work in English. It explores two major themes—the relationship between environment and viticulture, and between areas of production and wine quality, and outlines topics for further geographical research on vine‐related themes as diverse as history, trade, disease and crime.

Viticulture in pre‐independence Brazil

Grape cultivation and winemaking appear to have been introduced into Brazil by the Portuguese, after 1500. However, viticulture during the colonial period was of limited success, for a variety of reasons. Environmental conditions were unsuitable and Portuguese commercial policy sought to protect domestic production and to use Brazil as a market for wine from the Douro and elsewhere. Only with the arrival of immigrants from the Acores, Germany and Italy was a modest wine industry established in southern Brazil in the 19th century.

Perspectives on Landscape Change in Brazil

The country is so well-favoured that if it were rightly cultivated it would yield everything. (Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, 1 May 1500.) It is a vast region with favoured terrain. On its soil grow all fruits; On its subsoil exist all treasures… Its fields give the most useful food; its mines the finest gold… It is an admirable country, rich in every respect, where prodigiously profuse nature sacrifices herself in fertile produce for the opulence of the monarchy and the benefit of the world. (J. da Rocha Pitta, 1724.)

The Story of Hillebrand Estates Winery

In the post-war boom in New World winemaking, Canada has definitely been a Cinderella—late at the party and not much to wear. Only in the last few years have the wines of the Niagara Peninsula and the Okanagan Valley begun to establish some reputation for wines of quality. The industry had to start from obstacles which were not only environmental. The legacy of Prohibition and puritanism lingered well into the post-1945 period. It was only in 1967 that Saskatchewan opened the country’s first ‘self service’ liquor store, a step not made in Ontario until 1969. This reviewer recalls his first bemused foray into an unreconstructed state liquor store in Ottawa, to be faced with a noticeboard containing a short list of wines—with no such refinement as a vintage, filling in an order form which required name and address, whereupon a surly clerk disappeared to the back of the soulless store, and reappeared with a bottle in an anonymous brown paper bag. Stepping out into the night, the bag was sufficient to mark one out as a sinful ‘drinker’ and, as I recall, the wine was definitely of hooch quality! Though returning soldiers and Italian and Portuguese immigrants had begun to create a demand for wine, domestic producers continued to pander to the legacy of Prohibition—‘never mind the quality, what’s the proof’, so that ‘Canadian wine’ was sticky, sweet and strong! Peter Mielzynski-Zychlinski’s book is an autobiography and a biography of attempts to change this situation, in the winelands of the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario. It was a challenge fraught with difficulties. Existing wine producers (‘manufacturers’ might be more accurate) used high-yielding Labrusca grapes, and the provincial government bought-up any of the crop not used by the wineries. The latter were permitted to blend this once-tasted, never forgotten must with up to 30% of imported bulk wine or grape juice, for which cheapness rather than quality was a major consideration. As demand for better-quality wine increased, the domestic industry was incapable of supplying it, given this tradition of Labrusca grapes and cheap blends. A few pioneer winemakers and grape-growers began to emerge, experimenting with vinifera and hybrid grapes such as Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Vidal and Maréchal Foch. Among the pioneer wineries were Inniskillin, Château des Charmes, and Hillebrand. Peter MielzynskiZychlinski’s book is a detailed account of his involvement with the development of the latter company. This emerged from his career as a wine and spirit salesman to the provincial liquor boards which effectively controlled sales of alcoholic beverages across