South American Whisky

In 1986, Union stopped regular releases under its own name. It did not stop making spirit. For decades, the Brazilian producer supplied other companies, returning to its own brand in 2019.[5] Its history documents a Brazilian malt tradition stretching back decades, while La Alazana Patagonia Single Malt at 46% ABV provides another named example of South American whisky.[4][5][6]

Union: from wine to whisky

Union began with wine, not whisky. The producer traces its origins to 1948 in Veranópolis, where it made wine and wine products. The company is located in the Serra Gaúcha, in Rio Grande do Sul. In 1972, the Borsato and Ziero families took control and switched the business to malt whisky.[4]

That history gives a plain answer to a common misconception: Brazilian whisky is not simply imported Scotch. Union dates its move into malt whisky to 1972; a trade account places the start of malt spirit production in 1974. The dates mark different steps, the change of direction followed by production, rather than rival versions of the same event.[4][5]

Union credits its whisky’s character to climate, pure water from the mountain slopes, good malt and time. Visitors, the producer says, can see the pot stills and oak ageing barrels: the equipment behind a business that moved from wine into malt spirit.[4]

Decades as a supplier

Union’s years away from regular own brand releases were years spent supplying others. The trade account records the end of those regular releases in 1986 and their resumption in 2019, with spirit continuing to go to other companies in between.[5]

Production changed location before the brand returned. According to the same account, a new site at Bento Gonçalves took over production in 2016 and 2017. These were separate developments: the move changed where the spirit was made; the 2019 return concerned releases under Union’s own name.[5]

Veranópolis now serves as offices and warehousing. Rafael Nardi described that site’s smaller stills, downward lyne arms and worm tubs, saying these made the spirit produced before the move different.[5]

Reading Brazilian whisky terminology

“Puro Malte” is the term used for Brazilian single malt within Brazil, according to the trade account. An older Brazilian decree also defined a pure malt category. The everyday naming practice and the legal definition are related subjects, but the decree’s precise wording and current status need separate attention.[5][1]

Article 55 of Decreto nº 6.871 gave the legal names as “uísque, whisky ou whiskey”. Dated 4 June 2009, the decree implemented Lei nº 8.918 of 14 July 1994 on beverages. Its annexed regulation contained 23 chapters.[1][3]

These are historical provisions, not a statement of current law. A legal database lists Decreto nº 6.871 as revoked by Decreto nº 12.709 of 2025, although the Câmara dos Deputados still publishes the earlier text. The available record does not establish how the 2025 decree defines whisky.[1][2]

What the 2009 decree said

The 2009 decree set whisky’s strength at 38% to 54% ABV at 20°C. It described a drink made from an aged simple distillate of cereals that were partly or wholly malted. It also allowed potable agricultural ethyl alcohol or cereal distillate to be added, along with water and caramel for colour.[1]

Pure malt had a more specific composition requirement than whisky generally. It had to be made only from aged malt distillate, with congeners of at least 350 mg per 100 ml of anhydrous alcohol.[1]

The name “scotch whisky” had its own conditions for whisky bottled in Brazil. The decree allowed that name, and similar names, only where the whisky was made entirely from bulk spirit distilled and aged in the country of origin. Water and caramel could be added. A blend of Scotch and local spirit, however, could not be called Scotch under that rule.[1]

That answers a myth about Brazilian bottling: the historical rule did not allow a bottler to mix Scotch with local spirit and keep the Scotch name. It is a clear distinction in the earlier text, though it is not an independently verified account of the law in force today.[1][2]

A named La Alazana bottling

The available record does not reliably establish La Alazana’s fuller production history, location, water source, cask policy or founding date. Nor does it establish Argentina’s legal definition of whisky or reliable producer details for Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Peru.

A single named expression is no basis for counting South American distilleries. What the record does document is La Alazana Patagonia Single Malt, listed at 46% ABV.[6]

Sources

1. Câmara dos Deputados. Decreto nº 6.871, de 4 de junho de 2009. Checked November 2026.
2. DireitoHD. Dec. n.º 6.871/09. Checked November 2026.
3. UNEP LEAP. Decree No. 6.871 regulating Act No. 8.918. Checked November 2026.
4. Union Distillery. Sobre a empresa UNION DISTILLERY. Producer’s account. Checked November 2026.
5. WhiskeyPulse via NewsBreak. Brazil’s 50-Year Malt Whisky Tradition Finally Emerges. Trade account. Checked November 2026.
6. Whiskybase. La Alazana Patagonia Single Malt. Checked November 2026.