Brazil’s Under-the-Radar Sparkling Wine Is a Big Bargain, Too

(Bloomberg) -- True story: When former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva served France’s Nicolas Sarkozy a glass of Casa Valduga’s Brazilian sparkling wine, Sarkozy complimented his choice of Champagne. (Awkward.)

The seductions of Serra Gaúcha, the southern wine region where it was made, are pure Brazil—parrots and waterfalls, soccer matches, tangy caipirinhas, sizzling churrasco—but with this big surprise. It’s an oasis of bright, vivacious, festive bubbly, with chardonnay playing a starring role.

You can be forgiven if you didn’t know this. But here’s one trick to spotting the next hot wine countries: Check the authoritative The World Atlas of Wine. For the first time, the latest edition allots an entire page to Brazil.

I got my first serious taste of the country’s wines several years ago at a South American wine conference. The diversity of fizz styles was impressive. Whether inexpensive, chuggable, prosecco-style sparklers, sweet frizzante moscatos, value-driven bruts, or sophisticated vintage blanc de blancs, Brazil had it covered. Best of all, more of them are now available outside the country.

But let me back up.

You might be assuming that Brazil is a brand-new spot for wine grapes, but you’d be wrong. The first vines arrived in the 1500s with Portuguese settlers, but they planted in the wrong places. Vineyards went bust, done in by heat and humidity.

Italians started arriving in 1875 and had better luck. Despite the country’s image of sunny tropical beaches, its southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, 900 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, has a temperate climate like that of neighboring Uruguay. Italians settled in its cool, hilly subzone Serra Gaúcha, where weather, basalt rock soil, and altitude proved excellent for fine wine grapes.

Immigrants from northern Italy’s Trentino brought their culture of sparkling wines, but investment in know-how and technology really arrived in the early 1970s, when Moët & Chandon opened an offshoot, Chandon Brasil. Quality got a further push when the country’s closed economy opened up in the 1990s, and competition forced winemakers to up their game.

In the past 20 years, the country’s wine scene has exploded to six major regions and 1,100 wineries, but Serra Gaúcha is where about 80% of Brazilian fine wines are produced.

You’ll find the top bubbly in two micro-regions there: mountainous Pinto Bandeira and tourist haven Vale dos Vinhedos, home to Casa Valduga. As in Champagne, the grapes are mostly chardonnay and pinot noir, and winemaking relies on the traditional method of creating the bubbles through a second fermentation in the bottle. (Other areas make prosecco-style wines through the Charmat method that creates bubbles via carbonation in large tanks.)

In the past five years, sparkling wine quality has jumped even higher, according to Patricio Tapia, author of Descorchados, the best guide to South American wine, which reviews dozens of them in the latest edition. “Today,” he says, “those made by the traditional Champagne method are among the best in South America.”

Many vintners are pinning their hopes on sparkling wine as the taste gateway to the U.S., the U.K., and perhaps even China. “Brazil doesn’t have a signature grape, like malbec in Argentina,” explains Evan Goldstein, president of Full Circle Wine Solutions Inc., which offered the conference. “So bubbly is a way to differentiate themselves.”

Highlighting fizz looks to be a smart move, even though Brazil also produces some good reds and whites and—amazingly—ice wine. Love for bubbly from everywhere is why sales of sparkling wine in the U.S. have grown consistently for the past 12 years, and this is expected to continue until at least 2025, according to the just-published 2020 edition of Shanken’s Impact Databank Review and Forecast for the U.S. wine market.  

For Brazilian bubbly there’s just one catch.

Though 2020 was a banner year for the harvest in Brazil—luckily everything was picked in February, before Covid-19 hit—the pandemic has seriously affected export plans. Popular Brazilian steakhouse chains such as Fogo de Chão had been spreading the word; like all restaurants, they’re hurting, not reordering.

Still, there enough super examples sit on shelves to convince you they’re worth drinking, especially at holiday time. Have I mentioned that they’re bargains?

Brazilian Sparkling Wine Bottle-Buying Guide

Cave Geisse
In quality and global availability, Geisse is a leader in Brazil’s fizz sweepstakes. Founded by the winemaker who debuted Chandon Brasil, the winery has been perfecting wines in Pinto Bandeira for 40 years. Mario Geisse grows only chardonnay and pinot noir and makes all his wines using the same method as that for Champagne.

2016 Cave Geisse Brut ($22):  Citrusy notes and jazzy acidity make this sparkler crisp and refreshing, perfect for aperitifs.

Cave Amadeu Rustico Nature ($23):  Brims with aromas of fresh bread baking and intense fresh lemon flavors. This non-vintage bottle is still on the lees (dead yeast cells), like a pet nat, so it looks cloudy.

Casa Valduga
Run by three brothers, this is one of the oldest wineries in Brazil, and it’s helping to lead the new quality scene. Its sparkling wines come from vineyards in Vale dos Vinhedos.

130 Meses Brut ($25): This non-vintage chardonnay and pinot noir cuvée has intense almond aromas, a savory, smoky, complex character, and luscious, dense bubbles.

Casa Valduga Sur Lie 30 Meses Nature Branco ($16): Mostly chardonnay, it’s made by the traditional method and also non-vintage. It’s cloudy, like a pet nat, and has a lush, creamy texture and rich, fruity complexity. (Beware: the closure makes it tough to open.)

Pizzato
Family owned and run, this small boutique winery in Vale dos Vinhedos makes superb sparkling wines. So far, only its reds are in the U.S.

2012 Pizzato Concentus Gran Reserva ($36): Deep, lush, earthy, and spicy, this blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and tannat has structure and plush fruit. It would be ideal with a comforting beef stew.

Miolo
One of the largest wine players in Brazil, the family-run Miolo Wine Group maintains vineyards in several main wine regions and produces 15% of all of the country’s sparkling wines. Those below come from higher-altitude Vale dos Vinhedos.

Non-vintage Miolo Cuvée Tradition Brut Rosé ($16–$20): Deep color, red fruit, dry, fresh, food-friendly, non-vintage fizz. Also look for the non-vintage Cuvée Tradition Brut.

Lidio Carraro
Founded just over 20 years ago, this award-winning boutique winery in Serra Gaúcha also has vineyards near the Uruguayan border, where it’s drier and windier. For now, the sparkling wines are available only in Brazil, but try the reds and whites.

2016 Lidio Carraro Dadivas Chardonnay ($16): Fresh, bright, lemony, and un-oaked, this is a chardonnay that pinot grigio lovers will love—an excellent refrigerator white.

2008 Grande Vindima Quorum ($54): A sophisticated, merlot-based red and something to drink with a grilled steak, after you’ve downed a bottle or two of bubbly, of course. 

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