New generation of winemakers transforms wines from Vale dos Vinhedos

There is a flavor of innovation in the wines that come from Vale dos Vinhedos – the Serra Gaúcha region that encompasses areas of the municipalities of Bento Gonçalves, Garibaldi and Monte Belo do Sul. New grapes, blends with products from other regions and different winemaking methods have resulted in wines with personality that arouse, at the very least, curiosity. The inventiveness is due to the new generation of enologists taking over the region: young, well-traveled and with academic training in the area, they renew the family business and demonstrate the potential of Brazilian wine.

Cristofoli is an example of this scenario. Created in the 1980s and formalized in the late 1990s, the family winery has undergone a repositioning in recent years after the new generation took over the management of the business. Graduated in oenology, brothers Bruna and Lorenzo – 36 and 28 years old, respectively – and cousin Letícia (25 years old) create new experiences for the family space, invest in new ways of producing grapes and take risks in winemaking methods.

“We seek in our work to value our land, the national terroir. Our desire is to become a reference in wine and wine tourism. For that, we always have a few cards up our sleeve. An example is our wines from the Collection line”, comments oenologist Bruna Cristofoli, who is currently responsible for managing the winery and the enogastronomic experiences.

The three labels of the Collection line form a set of wines that combine different grape varieties and methods. Riesling series Italic wine case, for example. Normally intended for the production of sparkling wines in Bento Gonçalves, the Cristofoli family decided to use Riesling to make a still wine with maceration during alcoholic fermentation. The grapes are harvested in the morning and then manually destemmed to undergo maceration.

Another variety that is part of the Collection is Tannat. In this case, the wine is produced from carbonic maceration. The process consists of filling tanks with whole bunches of grapes and then subjecting them to a carbon dioxide atmosphere, which reduces the acidity of the berries. Only after 8 to 15 days in this process are the curls pressed. The result is a medium-bodied wine with round tannins and milky notes.

All the grapes used on the labels are produced on Cristofoli’s own properties, which have 3 hectares of vineyards in the Vale region. In the summer, harvest time, the winery promotes the Evening in the Harvest and throughout the year offers the experience of Edredom in the Parreirais – a favorite of couples –, in addition to tastings at the winery and a harmonized lunch at the restaurant next to the vineyard (reservation is required).

Bruna is part of the Novos Talentos do Vinho Brasileiro project, which brings together six wineries led by young people from the Serra Gaúcha region. The group is formed by the Bodega Iribarrererem wineries (Bento Gonçalves – Vale dos Vinhedos), Ancient Cave (Farroupilha), Cristofoli Family Wines (Bento Gonçalves – Historical Cantinas Route), Creative Enology (Bento Gonçalves – Stone Paths), Monte Sant’Anna (St. Mark) and Tenuta Foppa & Ambrosi (Garibaldi) through a collaborative project.

The idea is to work as a group to participate in fairs and other market events and thus gain space to spread the virtues of Brazilian terroir diversity and expand the market for new national labels. “We understand that together, the six companies are stronger commercially and manage to bring more solutions to our partners. Added to the six wineries, the portfolio reaches more than 100 wine options, with different styles and value ranges”, he comments.

Mount Chiaro

Following the line of combining innovative wines with personality and enogastronomic experiences, Monte Chiaro opened its doors at the beginning of 2023, and was designed especially for enotourism.

The winery is the fulfillment of an old family wish, which settled in the region in 1910. “We have always worked with wines and grapes, but we only realized the dream of our own wine this year”, says Bruna Dachery, oenologist and owner of the winery, which she runs together with her husband Lucas, also an oenologist.

Upon reaching the terrace, which overlooks rural areas of the Vale dos Vinhedos, tourists are welcomed with a sparkling wine from Monte Chiaro. Afterwards, live the experience of tasting other wines from the winery. With the proposal to rescue grapes from Italian varieties and combine wine with art, today Monte Chiaro has nine labels.

They are illustrated by watercolors produced by the artist Antonio Giacomin exclusively for the brand. The works that illustrate the labels can be seen in the winery’s exhibition room. The canvases are painted with wine and, like the drink, the color of the watercolors evolves over time.

family tradition

On the market for almost 24 years, Pizzato is another example of how the combination of the grape growing tradition in the region with the enology knowledge of the new generations can have surprising results. In 1999, the winery made its first wine from Merlot grapes. Patriarch Plínio Pizzato – who had been cultivating vines using the espalier method since the 1980s – and his sons Ivo and Flávio started the business with a success: the Pizzato Merlot 1999.

The wine hit the market in September 2000 and won national awards. There were 15,500 bottles. To buy, just show your CPF. It was a bottle for each record. Pizzato became known as the House of Merlots and further highlighted the potential of Vale dos Vinhedos for the production of this variety, which today is part of the grape varieties allowed in the Geographical Indication (GI) Vale dos Vinhedos.

If you’re very lucky, you can find Plinio Pizzato on a visit to the winery. “We always look for quality. A good wine only comes out if you take care of the vine a lot”, teaches the patriarch, who is now just over 80 years old and speaks in this sentence about vineyards, wines and certainly also family.

*The reporter traveled at the invitation of Registrocom Brasil

Meanwhile, in Paraná…

Per Flavia Alves, special for Pino

If in Rio Grande do Sul the wine scene is already experiencing a level of maturity that allows for great revolutions, in Paraná, the scene is still moving towards the consolidation of the state on the Brazilian wine map.

Known for its table wine production (about 40 thousand tons of grapes are processed annually), the challenge now is to show that the state also produces good fine labels. Proof of this is the recent recognition that some wineries have won in national and international competitions, such as Franco Italiano, located in the municipality of Colombo, which took the 2023 Vinalies Gold Medal with Censurato, a 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Contrary to what happens in many new world wine regions, where one or two grape varieties reign supreme – like Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough (New Zealand), or Pinot Noir in Santa Barbara (California, USA) – Paraná does not have a single vocation, which makes its production diverse and even surprising.

Among the highlights, the labels produced from Casca Dura, in Bituruna, have been attracting attention. Traditionally used for table wines, the grape, which yielded the first geographical indication for wines in Paraná, is now gaining ground among fine wines. “It produces an aromatic and intensely tasty wine, slightly sweetened, which has enchanted connoisseurs”, explains Wagner Gabardo, secretary of the Association of Viticulturists of Paraná (Vinopar) and director of the Alta Gama sommelier school.

Part of this variety is also due to the different microclimates found in the state, since the wineries are distributed all over the map, from the coldest and most humid regions, as is the case of the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba, to warmer places, such as the North of the State. “The humid climate provides the ideal acidity and fruitiness for sparkling wines, like what we see in Legado (Campo Largo), Araucária (São José dos Pinhais) and RH (Mariópolis)”, he exemplifies.

In the red menu, an immense variety, from the exploration of popularly known grape varietals, such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, or unlikely blends, such as the labels of Unus Mundus (São Luiz do Purunã), which explore grapes such as Rebus, Marselan, Ancellotta and Grosso, all produced in Paraná soil.

And if the state does not have a unique vocation in terms of grapes, in terms of objective there seems to be a common north among producers: wine more as an experience than a product. “The strategic interest is, within Paraná, to associate consumption with the wine tourism experience. It is not by chance that we have launched (at Vinopar) the wine tourism map. The wine enchantment experience is much more intense when you talk to those who made it, in the surroundings where it was produced, this generates an interesting affective issue”, says Gabardo. Were you curious to learn more about the regions that are producing (good) wines in the state? We left the mine map here for you!