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WORLD NEWSThursday 4 February 2016

Californians want rum-crazy Cuba to start drinking wine

ANDREA RODRIGUEZ point of inefficiency and

Associated Press bureaucracy that makes it

HAVANA (AP) — The 3.5 virtually impossible for pri-

million tourists who flooded vate businesses to bring in

Cuba last year downed large quantities of goods

oceans of mojitos, lakes of from other countries. Pala-

daiquiris and rivers of thin, dar owners depend on

sour beer. Only an odd few black-market goods, items

accompanied their ropa bought at retail stores or

vieja and croquetas with supplies brought in the suit-

wine — mostly overpriced, cases of people paid to

low- to mid-grade vintages “mule” products from the

from Chile, Argentina and U.S. and other countries.

Spain. The lack of a legal whole-

sale market is widely seen

That may be about to as one of the main hin-

change, at least around drances to the efficient de-

the margins of Cuba’s velopment of private enter-

once-dismal dining scene. prise in Cuba.

Some of the United States’

largest vintners want to turn “It doesn’t matter to me

this island of sweet rum and if a private person or the

flat state-brewed beer into California winemaker Keith Nichols stands at a table with a selection from his winery during the state does the importing.
a haven for robust Califor- first California Wine Symposium in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. About 100 California wine What matters is that there’s

nia zinfandel, oaky char- producers, distributors and exporters descended on Havana this week for a two-day symposium somewhere to buy this
donnay and powerful cab- wine,” said Julio Valdes, a
ernet sauvignon. aimed at reintroducing Cuban restaurant owners and managers to the viticultural powerhouse. representative of the Five
Thousands of private res-
taurants have cropped Associated Press
up around Cuba in recent
years under economic re- producers, distributors and on-one meetings between
forms designed to soften
the shock of cutbacks in exporters descended on U.S. business people and
the troubled state-con-
Havana this week for a Cuban restaurateurs and

two-day symposium to rein- state officials.

troduce Cuban restaurant “This is a spectacular meet-

owners and managers to ing,” said Orlando Rodri-

their products. guez, owner of Waoo!!, a

three-year-old, 20-employ-

ee restaurant in Havana’s

trendy Vedado neighbor-

hood. “It arouses interest,

which prompts business,

which creates profits.”

Some 50 private restau-

rants, or paladares, and

hundreds of sommeliers Fernando Fernandez, Cuban Master of cigar sommeliers, smells
and buyers for state-run a glass of wine during the first California Wine Symposium in Ha-

restaurants attended the vana, Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. Some of the United States’
conference, whose partici-
pants included representa- largest vintners want to turn this island of sweet rum and flat
tives of the E&J Gallo and
Francis Ford Coppola win- state-brewed beer into a haven for wine.
eries.
Associated Press
It’s been legal for Cuba to
buy wine and other agri- big wine-drinking country,
cultural products from the
People attend the first California Wine Symposium in Havana, U.S. for years but Cuban but it imports some 360,000 Corners Trattoria in Old Ha-
Cuba, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016. In a sign of changing times, Cali- officials say they stopped cases of wine a year from vana. “It’s important for us
fornia’s largest winemakers hold a two-day tasting and trade importing California wine countries that allow sales to have a variety for our
show for Cuban restaurant owners in hopes of developing a new in 2005 because the U.S. on credit. clients. Right now we have
market in a country dominated by rum, weak beer and cheap trade embargo prohibits Darius Anderson, head of Chilean, Italian and Span-
South American wine. American producers from U.S. Cava Exports, said he ish wine that we buy in
selling agricultural goods to hopes to be shipping Cali- stores bit by bit.”
Associated Press Cuba on credit. Obama al- fornia wine to Cuba by the
lowed sales of most goods
trolled economy. Particu- The California Wine Sym- to Cuba on credit through end of the year. Francisco Chacon, somme-
larly on the high end, those posium was organized by executive action last week “We’re working on the ship- lier of the state-run Conde
restaurants’ clients are in- the California Wine Insti- but lifting the ban on credit ping, we’re working on the de Villanueva hotel, said
creasingly American, part tute, associations of Napa for farm products would re- financing, and we hope he is focused on the ratio
of a 76 percent surge in and Sonoma valley wine quire an act of Congress. to have them all solved of price to quality and the
U.S. tourism — to 161,174 producers and Sonoma- Cuba has never been a by mid-year, have two or U.S. being just 90 miles from
last year — that followed based U.S. Cava Exports, three containers on the Cuba offers a major ad-
Presidents Raul Castro and a two-year-old company water and get them here vantage.
Barack Obama’s declara- founded to export Califor- by the holidays,” he said. “It makes much more eco-
tion of detente at the end nia agricultural products to Only a small number of nomic sense for us to bring
of 2014. Cuba. The event featured Cuban government agen- a wine from the United
tastings, talks on Califor- cies are allowed to import States than from Spain,” he
Hoping to ride both trends, nia’s vineyards and one- goods, creating a choke- said.q
about 100 California wine