The development of the viticulture for a high quality tropical wine production in the world.

A lot of grapes are produced in the tropics, but only a little part is used to winemaking, what represents some million liters of tropical wines produced per year. The present industry of tropical wine production began 30 years ago. Today, there are many commercial wineries in several countries in the tropical zone of the globe, like in Brazil, India, Thailand and Venezuela. Considered a challenge in the past, producing quality wines in the tropics became reality. This article analyses the tropical viticulture for wine production, where grapevines are constantly growing. The concept of tropical viticultural climate, main characteristics and production systems in tropical zones are presented. Considering that almost everything is new in terms of viticulture science and technology, the main lacks of know-how are analyzed. The concept of "just-in-tirne quality" for some tropical wines is also presented. Our analysis indicates that it is possible to predict, for the near future, the achievement of a high quality production of tropical wines with expressive amount, despite marketing challenges and competi tive opportunities in the global market