Traditionally, wines are produced in temperate climate zones, with one harvest per year. Tropical wines are a new concept of vitiviniculture that is being developed, principally in Brazil. The new Brazilian frontier is located in the northeast region (São Francisco River Valley) in Pernambuco State, close to the equator, between 8 and 9°S. Compared with other Brazilian and worldwide vineyards, the grapes of this region possess peculiar characteristics. The aim of this work is a preliminary study of commercial São Francisco River Valley wines, analyzing their metabolite profiles by ¹H NMR and chemometric methods. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.