While a trip to Brazil might not be in the cards for this year, it is a place you should put on your bucket list as a wine destination. Just like its people, Brazil’s wines are diverse, colorful, and joyful. From their impressive sparkling wines to their great reds based on international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Tannat or the host of Italian varieties grown there, Brazil’s wines are ones to look for. 

Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country with 27 states and the fifth largest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere. Brazil has six main wine regions: Serra Gaúcha, Serra do Sudeste, Campanha, Campos de Cima da Serra, Planalto Catarinense and the Vale do São Francisco to the far North. The largest one is called Serra Gaûcha in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.  Bento Gonçalves, in Rio Grande do Sul, is the center of the country’s wine industry. To enter the town, you will drive through a wine barrel. You get the idea.

Starting in 2002, Brazil began to embrace denominations of origin.  Today, Brazil has one Appellation of Origin, AO Vale dos Vinhedos and four Geographical Indications, which someday might be made into AOs – GI Pinto Bandeira, GI Monte Belo, GI Farroupilha, and GI Altos Montes. These denominations are found within the Serra Gaúcha. Brazil has about 150 wineries of large dimensions and more than   1,100 small farms, approximately two hectares per family. They grow about 89,000 hectares of vines. To read the rest of the article, click here on Sante Magazine.