page_title: New World wine
section_title: Changes in the Americas and opening of South Africa
hierarchical_section_title: New World wine / History / Changes in the Americas and opening of South Africa
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Потоси. Рисунок из Хроники Перу, 1553 Español: Potosi. El imagen de la Cronica del Peru, 1553
context_page_description: New World wines are those wines produced outside the traditional winegrowing areas of Europe and the Middle East, in particular from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. The phrase connotes a distinction between these "New World" wines and those wines produced in "Old World" countries with a long-established history of wine production – most notably, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
context_section_description: In 1595 the Spanish Crown banned the establishment of new vineyards in the Americas, but this order was largely ignored. The ban sought to protect Iberian wine from competition by Peruvian wine and can be considered an example of commodity mercantilism. Moreover, the Spanish Crown banned the export of Peruvian wine to Panamá and Guatemala in 1614 and 1615 respectively. The enforcement of the restrictions on wine growth and trade in the Spanish Empire was in general lax. The only market in the Americas the Spanish Crown managed – to some degre – to secure for Iberian wine was Mexico.
  The growth of mining in Potosí in present-day Bolivia, which became the largest city in the Americas in the 17th century, created a constant demand for wine which was supplied mainly from Peru. In Potosí part of salaries were paid with wine. Furthermore, Peruvian wine growers supplied the city of Lima, the most important political centre in South America in the 16th and 17th centuries. In Chile wine demand was guaranteed by the Army of Arauco, a permanent army financed with silver from Potosí which fought native Mapuches. In the view that Parauguayan wine could not compete in these three markets Paraguayans abandoned winegrowing and sought instead income from tobacco and yerba mate exports. In the 18th century practically no winegrowing occurred in Paraguay.
  In 1687 the whole southern coast of Peru was struck by the 1687 Peru earthquake which destroyed the cities of Villa de Pisco and Ica. The earthquake destroyed wine cellars and mud containers used for wine storage. This event marked the end of the Peruvian wine-boom. The suppression of the Society of Jesus in Spanish America in 1767 caused the Jesuit vineyards in Peru to be  auctioned at high prices but new owners did not had the same expertise as the Jesuits contributing to a production decline. Peruvian wine-making was further challenged by the fact that production of pisco, also made from grapes, rose from being exceed in the early 18th century by wine to represent 90% of the grape beverages prepared in Peru in 1764. Even after the shift to pisco making did vineyards in Peru encountered economic troubles since in the late 18th century the Spanish Crown lifted the ban on the production of rum in Peru which was cheaper and but of lower quality than pisco.
  The decline of Peruvian wine even caused Peru to import some wine from Chile as it happened in 1795 when Lima imported 5.000 troves (Spanish: botijas) from Concepción in southern Chile. This particular export showed the emergence of Chile relative to Peru as a wine-making region. Eduard Friedrich Poeppig claimed, as some others did before him, that the wines from Concepción were the best of Chile, likely due the less arid climate of southern Chile.
  The New World imported wine from the early days of European colonisation, particularly for religious purposes. Perhaps the first significant example of the trade going the other way was Constantia from South Africa, which by the 18th century had become a firm favourite among European royalty.
caption: Mining activity in Potosí created a huge demand for wine in 17th century South America. Drawing by Pedro Cieza de León from 1553.
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