page_title: Viña Varela Zarranz
section_title: Vineyards
hierarchical_section_title: Viña Varela Zarranz / Vineyards
caption_attribution_description: Español: Viñedo con su sistema de conducción en Lyra
context_page_description: Viña Varela Zarranz is one of the oldest and most famous wineries of Uruguay, located in the city of Joaquín Suarez, Canelones. The Varela Zarranz family began their activities at the wine industry in 1933, a decade after the warehouse facility was built in 1888 by Diego Pons, who started the pioneer of the Uruguayan viticulture: Harriague, Vidiella, Varzi and Portal.
context_section_description: The winery and vineyards are located about 10 km away from the River Plate. More than 100 hectares of land are home to vineyards of French origin. The Uruguayan emblematic Tannat grape, heads the list of the red wine grapes followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, whose presence in this establishment can be traced to the nineteenth century, Cabernet Franc and, Merlot. Among the white wine gapes we grow Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and our exclusive production of Muscat Petit Grain.
  The vineyard surface encompasses two wine regions differentiated by their soil characteristic: Cuatro Piedras and Suárez.
  Cuatro Piedras
  It develops over silt-clay sediments with calcium carbonate concretions. The surface is lightly hilly. Soils are of a black color with slit-clay textures, high fertility, moderately well drained and rich in calcareous.
  Joaquín Suárez
  It spreads over the geology of silt-clay sediments in contact with crystalline rocks which emerge in some places. This generates shallow soils with light textures in average, some times with gravel due to variable lithologies of pre-Devonian rocks such as granites, migmatites and metamorphic schist rocks, well defined and of low fertility.
  The microclimate of both vineyards is influenced by the proximity of the sea (a few kilometers) and the cool breeze that is generated by promoting the development of flavours and aromas of fresh fruit and balanced acidity in white grapes, deep colour and ripe tannins and pleasant in reds. In Suarez the relative heigh of terrain reinforces the effect of wind, rapidly cooling the vines, citrus nuances giving white grapes and red fruits in reds. In Cuatro Piedras appears pear and apple notes on whites, and earthy and mineral in reds.
  The chosen conducting system is the Lyra, developed by the French researcher Prof. Alain Carbonneau. Special care exists that arises to prevent direct exposure to sunlight berries, avoiding sunny thereof and the loss of aroma compounds and subtle flavour. In this sense the inclination of both faces of the lyre decreases the angle of incidence of sunlight on the clusters. It is among the systems that allow a wide vegetation expression which is the main characteristic of the vines growing under our soil and weather conditions.
caption: Vineyards with Lyra's driving system
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