Brazilian-only wine list is successful in São Paulo – 01/25/2024 – Red or White

When it opened its doors on the roof of a building in Praça da República, in 2016, there was no shortage of people betting that Esther Rooftop would have a short life. After all, the restaurant by French duo Olivier Anquier and Benoît Mathurin was seeking a high-income audience and the address in question, as well as the entire square and the entire center of São Paulo, had been abandoned decades ago by the São Paulo elite. However, this elite returned to the Esther Building, the first modernist building in the city, in search of chef Benoît’s food, the charm of the environment and also the view of the square and the city. Today, almost eight years later, the restaurant remains a success.

At the end of last year, Benoît once again defied common sense. The chef, who is also the house’s sommelier, announced that the new wine list would consist of 100% national labels. Again, there were those who bet that the initiative would not work. “No customer has complained so far,” says Benoît proudly. “Our menu is a complete menu. Does the client like tempranillo? There is. Do you want sangiovese? There is also. Nebbiolo? Touriga nacional? Pinot noir? Brazil produces all of this. And very well.”

I went to dinner with Benoît the other day to see the menu. It is made up of around 50 labels, which vary according to supplier availability. Some, like the delicious orange wine Under my Skin, from Arte da Vinha, which we had that night but is no longer on the menu, are produced in very small quantities and end soon.

There are natural wines and conventional wines. Small and large producers. These are not cheap wines. At the moment, the cheapest is the Wild red, a gamay from Miolo that costs R$ 130.00, and the most expensive, the Monte Alegre, a pinot noir from Atelier Tormentas (read Marco Danielle), which costs R$ 349.00. It ranges from sparkling wine to dessert wine.

“When I arrived, I only knew French wines and a few things from other European countries,” says Benoît. “First I discovered South American, Chilean and Argentinean wines here. Then, I became friends with the couple Fábio Miolo and Jane Pizzato (both from wine producing families in the South) and they started introducing me to Brazilian wines. I then passed , visiting producers.”

A native of São Paulo by choice, Benoît has always sought to introduce local ingredients into his cuisine. The restaurant, for example, has a great selection of Brazilian cheeses. According to him, he had been thinking about focusing on Brazilian wines for some time. “My father, back in France, has a huge cellar of local wines,” he says. “I wanted to try to reproduce that here with Brazilian wines.”

It was just an idea until, in September 2023, during Wine South America, in Bento Gonçalves, Benoît met journalist Lúcia Porto from the Brasil de Vinhos platform and told her about her idea in a video. According to him, after the video was published, people started demanding that he put the idea into practice. “I talked to Olivier and we decided we would go ahead,” he recalls. In October, the duo launched the new menu.

Lúcia sent me this video as soon as it was published and I’ve been wanting to write this post ever since, but my schedule was busy and it was only in January that I managed to go to Esther. And I thought that the city’s anniversary, which turns 470 today, was a good opportunity to talk about a restaurant in Praça da República and Brazilian wines. I don’t know, it harmonizes.

It was good to go just now, because it gave me time to see that it’s not a flash in the pan. I was one of the people who had doubts about the acceptance this would have. A few years ago, the Botanique Hotel & Spa, which only has designer furniture and pieces by Brazilian artists, also created a menu exclusively for national labels, but ended up having to also create an imported menu because the clientele pressed for it. Although they resisted for a long time, but, from the beginning, there were those who didn’t accept it so much that they didn’t charge corkage fees to avoid problems. Whoever wanted to take their import.

What caught my attention was Benoît saying that there are no complaints. This shows that Brazilians’ vision of the national product is evolving. “During the pandemic there was a change,” says Benoît. “During deliveries, I felt that people were discovering national wine.” What a marvel! as another French chef based in Brazil would say. So, let’s toast to national wine, to the revitalization of the center of São Paulo and to the 470 years of this somewhat cosmopolitan, somewhat provincial city, which millions, whether born here or not, call their own.

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