ALTHOUGH its apparent inexorable rise has been checked recently by disquiet and riots sparked by rising bus fares, the cost of staging the World Cup and Olympics and the cost of tickets, Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America. It is the third largest market for personal computers, fifth for mobile phones, and third largest agricultural producer. Only time will tell whether the civil unrest will have a long-term effect on the Brazilian economy.

Brazil is a huge producer of grapes, but they are mainly table grapes. It is the fifth-largest wine producer in the southern hemisphere after Chile, Argentina, Australia and South Africa. At a modest 2.2 litres per head per annum (France 45 litres, Uruguay 25 litres, Argentina 23 litres; Chile 18 litres), it is the 13th largest wine market. Between 2007 and 2012, wine consumption has increased by more than 30% from 1.64 l litres. Of the 2.2 litres, only 0.7 is ‘fine wine’ – made from vitis vinifera grapes. The rest were American or hybrid vines. There are 1,100 wineries but only 152 process purely vinifera. Of 80,000ha, only 10,000 are given to vinifera.

Brazilians drink 50 litres of beer and 6 litres of cachaça per head a year. The country has a large young population and 53%, or 104 million people, of the population is now deemed middle class. This is predicted to rise to 57% by 2022. The potential is there, assuming current civil unrest can be defused and demonstrators placated.

Olympic hopes

On top of these fundamental trends, next year this vast, culturally and geographically diverse country hosts the FIFA soccer World Cup and, if that wasn’t enough, two years later it holds the Olympic Games, Rio 2016. If ever there was a moment for Brazilian wine producers to make up for lost time, now, in the run-up, is it.

It seems incredible but wines from Chile and Argentina hold a larger proportion of the Brazilian wine market than Brazilian wine. There is a reciprocal trading agreement between the major South American powerhouse economies whereby Brazil exports the likes of trucks and buses to Argentina and Chile and, in return has agreed to import wine at greatly reduced import tariffs. The upshot is that imported wines are cheaper than domestic wines. 

The double whammy is that the economy only truly opened up in the mid-1990s, so restaurateurs, retailers, sommeliers and ultimately consumers believe, incorrectly, that local Brazilian wines are inferior to imported wines.

The one area of optimism is that 75% of wine consumed in Brazil is domestically produced, according to Ibravin from the Brazilian Wine Institute. From wines made by the traditional (Champagne) method to sweet, low-alcohol fizzy Moscato wines, Brazilian sparklers are world class – as are their fine wines.

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In fact, there has been an explosion in popularity of ‘fun, sweet and easy-to-drink’ Moscatel-based wines in the US. Sales in 2011 were $300 million, three times more than in 2009. Brazilian companies such as the co-operatives Aurora and Salton have been at the forefront of exploiting this popularity. Development of Moscatel in Brazil has increased 340% in eight years to cope with rising demand.

In charge of steering Brazil’s assault on the global market is the impressive Andreia Gentilini Milan, commercial promotion director of Wines of Brasil (left). She tells Drinks International: “The priority has been to find agents/importers, build distribution and build awareness. We have to build a bridge. The Wines of Brazil project began in 2004. Exports were zero so we had to set up the organisation and adapt the products.

“We are already ahead in the US and UK markets. We are talking to the retailer chains and have PRs watching the markets and looking at tastings and taking people to Brazil.

“We have to be consistent in doing things so the message is not lost. The World Cup and the Olympics – this is our chance. People are looking for new things, looking for something different,” says Milan.

Already Texas-based US premium supermarket chain Central Market has listed 28 Brazilian wine labels, 10%-15% sparkling. Carrefour in Germany is doing a Brazilian promotion in September and next April. At the time of writing, a couple of UK chains were on the cusp of listing Brazilian wines.

“Since last year we have been planning and setting up activities. Everyone knows about the football. Journalists are looking for something different so this is the time to talk about lifestyle, gastronomy and our sparkling wines,” says Milan.

To get wine professionals on board, Wines of Brazil has launched a Wines Cup for sommeliers and other professionals. Comprising blind tastings in Wines of Brazil’s eight key countries, which are scored, the promotion was run at recent trade shows Prowein, London International Wine Fair and Vinexpo. The winners from each country will go to Brazil for the final and the ultimate winner will get to see the football.

“The promotion shows that the World Cup is coming and it is coming to Brazil,” says Milan.

Major producers

The Serra Gaúcha accounts for nearly 85% of Brazil’s wine production (see over) and within that Vale dos Vinhedos is the country’s first official DO, with major producers Aurora, the large co-operative with 1,100 family members producing 42 million litres of wine (15 million vinifera), Miolo, Salton and Casa Valduga. All are family owned and managed either wholly or predominately.

Aurora winemaker Andre Peres says the 82-year-old co-operative produces wine under 60 labels, of which 30 are vinifera wines. The winery receives 150,000 tourists a year.

“Brazilians like sweet, low-alcohol wines,” he says, “almost like cola. The Pinto Bandeira GI is two years old and is one of the best terroirs for sparkling wine grapes. Our plant there is owned by the co-operative, not by its members.

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“Eighty per cent of our sales are to domestic supermarkets. We first exported wine in the 1980s. We sent two sparklers to Stevens Garnier in the UK, one Moscato and one Pinot Noir/Chardonnay,” says Peres.

The Miolo family came late to the Serra Gaúcha region and bought Lote 43, which has become the name of its flagship wine. Export manager Fabiano Marciel says the family grew grapes and sold them to local co-operatives until an economic crisis in 1989. Prices collapsed so the family resolved to make its own wine.

To further improve quality Miolo had famous French ‘flying winemaker’ Michel Rolland in to consult from 2002 to 2012. The company has vineyards in four of Brazil’s six main vine-growing regions – Vale do Sao Francisco, Vale dos Vinehos (VdV, within Serra Gaúcha), Campos de Cima da Serra and the new up-and-coming region on the border with Uruguay down south, Campanha. Other families supply the winery from a further 200ha. Miolo boasts the largest facility in South America for handling sparkling wines. It claims 40% of the domestic market, making 1 million bottles by the traditional method and 2 million by the Chamat method. In all, Miolo produces 9 million litres of vinifera wine.

Salton is the other biggie in the VdV. The family were grocers, selling cheese and salamis along with wine. The company claims to have built the first winery in Brazil in 1910. There are seven family members working in the company and 140 family stakeholders. Salton boasts 37% of sparkling wine sales in Brazil. It has 40 wine labels, nine sparkling. With a storage capacity of 24 million litres, 60% of its wine is still, the rest sparkling.

New range

Export co-ordinator Vagner Montemaggiore says: “People still think Brazilian wines are no good.” Sadly that’s as may be, but Salton boasts sales of 18 to 19 million bottles a year: 37% sparkling, 3% grape juice, 60% still wine – both vinifera and Vitis Lambrusca. 

At Prowein earlier this year Salton unveiled a new range, Intensio, which comprises a Sauvignon Blanc/Viognier blend, Marselan and Teroldego which, unsurprisingly considering most of the antecedents of the people in Serra Gaúcha came from north eastern Italy and specifically Veneto, is native to the Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol region of Italy.

Casa Valduga is the smallest of Vale do Vinehos’s big four, once again family-owned and run. Valduga is more on-trade while the others are more supermarket-oriented. Joao Valduga is the winemaker and he switched from pergola to trellising the vines to improve quality. The company owns 90% of its supplying vineyards and makes 2 million litres in total from three regions or terroirs.
It boasts a capacity for 6 million bottles. 

Export manager Elisa Walker tells DI that Valduga has been the official supplier of sparkling wine to the Brazilian government for the past five years.

Stepping down considerably in size and scale is Lidio Carraro, which is next door to Miolo. Patricia Carraro is verging on the evangelical about her family’s wines, which emphatically use no wood.

“We want to reveal the identity of the grapes,” she says. “We do not want any interference. Everything is so standardised, that pushes us.” She says the company was the first to introduce trellising into the region and was Brazil’s first ‘boutique’ winery. With a total production of 350,000 bottles from 7ha in Vale dos Vinehos and 35ha in Encruzilhada do Sul. It normally sells off some of its grapes. “But this year we vinified everything,” says Carraro. “We believe in the terroir – climate, soil and our winemaking. We aspire to be 100% ‘clean viticulture’ but we cannot be organic as the humidity in the region necessitates pesticides and fungicide but no herbicide – we minimise use of chemicals.”

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The largest feather in Lidio Carraro’s cap is that its Faces wine is the ‘official wine of the World Cup’. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Petit Verdot blend and the company intends to produce a modest 3,000-5,000 bottles which will be priced at around US$17. She says: “We had the idea already and we would like to take the concept internationally. Faces is a symbol of multicultural Brazil and its different terroirs.”

Roberto Vianna, commercial manager for Vincola Camponogara, which owns the Rota 293 (main highway to Uruguay) brand, is a chef by training. He knows in how little esteem Brazilian wines are held in restaurants in Brazil.

Patriotism

“Brazilians are not very patriotic,” he says. “We have to work hard every day to sell our wines. We believe in our wines, it is our passion – and we have great wines. We are many countries in one but we are working hard to change Brazilians’ attitudes. The World Cup and the Olympics will help.” 

The big opportunity is Brazil’s sparkling wines. As oenologist Ricardo Morari for sparkling wine producer, Peterlongo says: “The market for Moscato is huge both in Brazil and the US.”

Wines of Brazil’s plans are well ahead. With world-class wines and especially its sparklers – be they fun, fizzy and sweet or serious and traditional – the country’s producers are ready to make the most of the World Cup and the Olympics. 

Let’s just hope the bus fares go down so the rioters stop rioting. Brazil doesn’t normally do own goals.