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FOUR COUNTRIES,
THREE GENERATIONS,
TWO CONTINENTS, ONE FAMILY.
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The Kambara family's ties to South America go back to 1956, when, in the midst of the reconstruction of Japan after World War II, the mayor of Numakuma, Hideo Kambara, arrived in Brazil and Paraguay in search of new horizons for the residents of his hometown.
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That was the beginning of a path that brings us to today, and that placed Makoto Kambara as a strong promoter of business ventures in those two countries and also in Uruguay.
He arrived in this country in 1975, after passing through Argentina, and acquired 17,000 hectares of land in Rocha, where a rice farm and cattle ranch operates to this day.
In the 1980s, Kambara opened a shipyard in Montevideo. He arrived in Piriápolis and bought an 800-hectare field that includes Cerro del Toro and its northern slope.
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From 2016, and advised by the Norwegian entrepreneur and good friend Lars Ugland, Makoto decided to plant 30 hectares of vi ñ ay project to build a winery to produce high quality wine.
Now in the hands of his son Takao Kambara, the project is progressing steadily with a team of Uruguayan technicians, who have been familiar with the area and the wine business since the beginning of the century.
The wine map of Uruguay centralizes in Canelones and Montevideo, where Italian migrants settled to cultivate the vine and produce wine. But thanks to different historical figures with a fortunate vision of the future, the Uruguayan vineyards currently spreads to other areas with highly valued conditions.
One of them was Francisco Piria, an alchemist known for his work in the eastern part of the country, who, in addition to his architectural legacy, had a very important production plan.
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FRANCISCO PIRIA:
A PIONEER,
A VISIONARY.
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In one of his trips to Europe, Piria sought to perfect the crop, trying to study the soil and the varieties that could best adapt. He also appealed to renowned technicians such as the engineer Teodoro Álvarez, and brought winemaker Brenno Benedetti from Italy, the grandfather of the famous writer Mario Benedetti.
Teodoro Álvarez, who worked at the beginning of the 20th century as a viticulture technical inspector, settled on Piria’s property to study it and elaborate a report for his bosses.
"This important establishment is the most interesting from the viticultural point of view in the whole country, because of the vine varieties that are grown there and the nature of the land where the vineyard is located, formed by the decomposition of the rocks from primitive geological periods where basalts and syenites appear; crossed in different directions by layers of earthy calcareous that appear in some places, constituting true quarries, which are exploited to fertilize the rest of the land devoid of lime in its greatest extension.”
Also because of the different altitudes and exposures in which the vines are located, depending on whether they occupy the slopes of the mountains or the plains of the valley, vegetating between different climates, and subjected to the challenging inclement weather", wrote the professional about Piria’s vineyard in April 1902.
Piria spent a lot of time experimenting with varieties and rootstocks. And once satisfied with his task, in addition to cultivating the vine, he dedicated himself to selling material so that others could plant.
In a communication to potential buyers in 1900, Piria wrote in his own handwriting:
At the beginning of 1900, Piria managed his own vineyard, very close to where Bodega Cerro del Toro is developed today.
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The Piriápolis Winery came to have 200 hectares of vineyards and produce wines of many styles, such as the "Cognacquina Piriápolis", famous for its presumed healing qualities.
"What satisfies the noble ambition of the hard-working and progressive man, with the means at his disposal, intelligence, arduous and constant work is finally achieving success.
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Success, for those who feel the need to fiercely achieve a goal, is not about money. Money is only a means, it’s only necessary to achieve victory; and this is largely the crowning achievement of the work undertaken and carried out with perseverance and success.
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Time, money, work: everything has been invested to achieve success. And today we can be sure with full conviction that the future of viticulture is a fact, moreover, a great problem solved”.
Francisco Piria
