Casa Perini: Signature Moscato Wines From the Farroupilha Region in Brazil

The #WorldWineTravel group will head to Brazil this month. Brazil is the fifth largest producer in the Southern Hemisphere and has been producing wines since the 1500s. The first vines were brought to Brazil in 1532 by Martim Afonso de Souza, who came from Portugal, with the aim of disseminating agriculture in the new colony.

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.Serra Gaûcha in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Brazil has 27 states and
about 150 wineries of a large dimension and more than 1,100 small farms, approximately two hectares per family. 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.

While grapes have been growing in Brazil since the 1500s, it was the arrival of Italian immigrants, a process initiated in 1875, which really spurred growth in the sector. Brazil makes all kinds of wines. Many producers are making sparkling wines using a variety of grapes and production methods. Usually made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, they also grow grow a lot of Moscato in an area called Farroupilha which is my focus today. This photo was taken at Casa Perini, a major producer of Moscatel, as Moscato is known in Brazil.

Casa Perini is located in Farroupilha. It was started in 1929 by Joao Perini and today is run by the four generation of the family. Farroupilha is famous for its Moscato wines. Moscato grapes grow well here because of the soils and weather, clayey basalt and sub-tropical weather. Casa Perini was the first winery to launch a completely national Moscato sparkling wine and is the largest seller of this type of wine. They produce many others but their Moscato is their signature wine.

In addition to their four brands of wines – Casa Perini, Arbo, Macaw, and Crudo, Casa Perini is also a tourist destination and has a restaurant called Beatrice. It’s a beautiful winery to visit and an interesting area. I shared a long lunch with the owner and his family. We ate lots of pasta and spoke in Italian. The winery is located in an area called the Vale Trentino which is hilly and about 600 to 800 meters above sea level. While not as mountainous, I wonder if it reminded the emigrants of their home turf. If memory serves, the family emigrated from Trentino to Brazil. I visited Trentino this summer, a beautiful region, with a lot of mountains. It’s interesting to think their relatives emigrated almost 100 years ago from the area to Brazil. A well-known Italian Oenologist who hails from the Veneto, Roberto Cipresso, told me that when he is in Brazil he feels at home and can speak in the dialect of his native region. I am not sure I believed him at first but after having visited, I saw that it was true.

Most Brazilian wineries are run by families of Italian origin who hail either from the Veneto or from Trentino which I found fascinating. They arrived in Brazil starting in 1875. Back in 2019 when I was visiting, the younger generations were all trying to get Italian citizenship. I wonder if they succeeded.

Moscato or Moscatel as it is called in Brazil is a fresh wine, great on a hot day, and refreshing. They make Moscato into still, sparkling, and distilled spirits. For Moscato lovers, these are wines to try. Farroupilha has hot summers and mild winters. They have many grapes from the Moscato family including Moscato Bianco and Moscato Giallo, as well as Moscato dell’Alessandria and the black grape, Moscato d’Amburgo which is less common. The wines all have primary grapey aromas as one would expect.