Canelones

INAVI dates Uruguayan winegrowing to the second half of the 19th century and places one of its two founding vineyards of about 1870 at Colón, in Montevideo, where Francisco Vidiella adapted the first European variety by 1878. It says Montevideo, chosen by the first growers to be close to the main market, still has some of the country's oldest vineyards, but that the city's growth pushed vineyards out into Canelones. Phylloxera arrived in 1898 and vines were replaced with grafted plants. The 1987 law that created INAVI set its legal seat in Las Piedras, in Canelones, and the institute began operating in January 1988.

INAVI describes Canelones as a flat to gently rolling landscape with intensive agriculture (vegetables, fruit and vines) and livestock. Its soils vary but are generally rich and dense; some contain pink granite more than 600 million years old. In Canelones and Montevideo, INAVI says, soils derive from sediments and are highly fertile. Temperatures are moderate: summer nights cool down and winters are not excessively cold. Many nearby rivers provide good water, and, as across the south, average rainfall makes irrigation unnecessary. The southern region is marked by the Río de la Plata, one of the largest river basins in the world. Vineyards share the land with other crops, so the department is not a uniform vineyard or one soil type.

INAVI says the southern region is ideal for white varieties, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier, but also, and especially, for Tannat. Nationally it attributes Tannat's results to clay soils and the Atlantic breeze. For neighbouring San José, whose climate and soils it calls very similar to those of Canelones, INAVI names classic Tannat as the regional wine. INAVI publishes no separate sensory profile for Canelones wines, and the department's wines still need their own vineyard and producer evidence.

The 2025 register gives Canelones 13.4 million vines on 3,870.95 ha, 66.8% of Uruguay's area, and 64.3 million kg of grapes, 73.9% of the national harvest; Montevideo follows with 11.4% of the vines. INAVI's regions page calls Canelones the largest wine region, responsible for 60% of production, and says the southern region holds more than 70% of the country's wineries. Canelones wines fall under the national categories; a VCP wine may show a geographical name only if its grapes were grown in that zone and it is certified. The main southern grapes named by INAVI are Tannat, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.