BRAZIL
A groundbreaking new DO for sparkling wines, pioneering viticultural techniques, a greater willingness to experiment and improved marketing beyond its borders mean Brazilian wines are currently making waves
White beaches, Amazon rainforests, Rio carnival, football. It’s fair to say that wine isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Brazil. But this vast country is making significant headway into the global wine scene.
The beginning of Brazil’s wine story isn’t an auspicious one. Although vines first arrived in 1532 with Portuguese explorer Martim Afonso de Sousa, early plantings failed. It wasn’t until Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1822 – amove that coincided with a gold rush and subsequent flood of European immigration – that wine culture took root.
The most significant contribution was made by Italians, who were offered land in southern Brazil in the mid-1870s and settled around Serra Gaúcha and Bento Gonçalves – an area that’s reminiscent of Italy’s Piedmont. The south remains the epicentre of Brazil’s fine wine scene today – the legacy of those historic settlers seen in the names of large companies, such as Miolo, that dominate the industry here.
SETTING THE SCENE
While European immigrants brought Vitis vinifera vines from their homeland, other grapes – American and hybrid vines such as Isabel and Niagara – proved more adaptable to Brazil’s humid climate and plantings spread throughout the country. Industrialisation of wine production from the 1970s saw volumes increase, but coincided with a period of military dictatorship (1964-1985), when international trade dwindled. Wine styles became geared to the domestic market – sweet jug wine is still more popular than fine wine today – though vinifera production continued in places.
Most notably, major French company Moët & Chandon arrived in Serra Gaúcha in 1973 to make sparkling wines, spotting a potential for the style that has become Brazil’s calling card. ‘Brazil can deliver any style of sparkling wine,’ says Maurício Roloff, education director of the Brazilian Sommelier Association. Indeed, the country has become the largest sparkling producer in Latin America, making both traditional-method – first produced in 1913 – and tank wines.
The 1990s marked a significant turning point in the Brazilian wine story. ‘The wine scene changed a lot from 1994 onwards when Brazil opened up more to foreign markets, and people in wine started to travel and study winemaking in other countries,’ explains winemaker Flavio Pizzato (pictured, right). The descendants of Italians who arrived in 1880, his family began making their own wines in 1999. The newly democratic country opened its doors to foreign trade, b
