History of the (exotic) wines of Brazil – part 2

How did it begin?

Believe it or not, Brazil has indeed a long tradition in wine making. Well, not too long if you compare to Old World countries, but we can say that any period larger than 100 years is long enough for a country that was ‘discovered’ in 1500.

In fact, the first winemaker in Brazil began producing wines in 1532. Brás Cubas used to bring grapes from Portugal and plant them in the then brand new land. This was even supported by the Portuguese Crown.

Unlike today – when the wine regions are mostly concentrated in the south –, the first vines were planted in the region of São Paulo (southwest), state that made fortunes by commercializing  wine.

However, during the 18^th Century, three important factors arisen to practically annihilate the young Brazilian wine industry.

 The first was that people found out that Brazil had the perfect weather and ‘terroir’ to produce sugar, what was much more valuable then wine. Therefore, vineyards started to be quickly replaced by sugar canes.

The second factor was that, due to the euphoria of the discovery of vast gold reserves in the states of Minas Gerais and Goiás the labor force that used worked in the farms moved to the work in the mines.

Lastly, to avoid competition with its own production, in 1785 Portugal forbidden manufacturing in Brazil.

Suddenly, the colony’s economy turned its back upon wine which became a luxury product, since its production got very short.

The game changer

In the 19^th Century, after proclaiming independence from Portugal, Brazilian Empire needed to occupy its regions, since there were some tense boundary disputes, especially in the south.

As the Brazilian population was too short, the government created politics to stimulate the immigration from abroad.

Therefore, a strong wave of immigration from Germany occurred. They established in the very south of Brazil, probably due to a smoother weather.

Pamphlet made by the Brazilian Empire to stimulate immigration

However, the real big wave of immigration, that lasted for ten years started around the 1860's, when many Italians came to Brazil to establish in the southern regions in exchange of some land given by the government.

Italian immigrants started to plant vines at the very first moment they got to Brazil

Is there anything popping your mind right now? Are you puzzling it out?

<<Italians + pieces of land + south regions>> 

You read above where the main wine regions in Brazil are located nowadays, did't you?

And guess where those Italians were from? Veneto, Lombardia, Trento, Sicily.

These Italians – and somehow the Germans – started to plant vineyards using the same technique of their mother land.

So, this is how the Brazilian wine production was reborn.

Let's see on next post how did it develop and how the industry is doing today.

History of the (exotic) wines of Brazil – part 1

Intro

During the last edition of ProWein a month ago, you could try out wines from all around the world.

The famous producer countries were there of course. The most interesting however was to try wines out of the famous circuit.

I had the opportunity to try wines from where I’d call the ‘Very Old World‘ – i.e. Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria – along with some from the ‘New New World’ – China, Czech Republic, Kosovo.

Some days ago a video below, entitled Exotic Wines at ProWein 2012, which was posted on the official website of the fair. Basically, it is a ‘discover’ of the wines from Brazil, China and Kosovo. Check it out.

I’m not going to lie: hearing that my country’s wines are exotic sounds awkward to me and, mostly, disappointing.

This made me wonder what people know about the wines that are made in Brazil? Also, do people know we have a certain tradition on winemaking, even though for centuries wine remained made by families only for self-consumption?

So, I’ve decided to make a series of posts to explain the actual situation and the history of wine in Brazil, which is under the world’s spotlights today.