Wine marketing preaches happiness in the harvest – 03/04/2023 – Panel SA

The revelation of the case of a large rescue of workers in a situation analogous to slavery in the grape harvest in Bento Gonçalves (RS) has raised concern among Brazilian wine exporters, who see the risk of tarnishing the image of the drink abroad, according to businessman Jonas Nascimento , partner and sommelier at exporter 067, which sells bottles from smaller producers in Brazil to the Middle East.

Nascimento claims that wine industry marketing usually presents the image of happy workers, singing during the harvest, and that this adds value to the product. Therefore, a grape harvested under exploitation conditions, according to him, carries such characteristics, impairing the quality of the wine.

“Manual harvesting is valued. It has a romantic part of people’s energy. The workers sing in the vineyard, they are happy. This is what is preached in wine marketing. And when we see news like that, that there is an electric shock , the worker who touches the grapes transmits this energy, which is sadness”, says Nascimento.

For the entrepreneur, the case should expand the demand for sustainability in production and consumer awareness about the quality of the product.

For exporters, does this case of slave labor in the grape harvest in the South raise concerns about the image of Brazilian wine abroad? For sure. I’ve always learned that wine is history. It turns my stomach to think about opening a wine made like this. Grapes have the energy of bondage.

In the great wines of France, the owner chooses the phases of the moon for harvesting and pruning. They bury horns in the soil to fertilize, there is the question of energy to correct the calcium in the soil.

This is not the wine from the Serra Gaúcha as a whole. But they are the ones that were discovered. And those who weren’t? If we think that we are going to serve a wine with this exploration energy, as a professional who has everything in life for wine, I refuse. Wine is history. It’s delicate.

I preach for Brazilian wine, I raise the national wine flag. People defend. Yet I see people post [nas redes sociais]: “that’s why I don’t drink Brazilian wine” or “where the Brazilian puts his hand there is something wrong”.

How did this concern come about? For people who work defending, seeing news like this is very shocking and sad, because it’s a whole job that goes down the drain. We are very sad about this. Now, it is up to the Public Ministry to seek to ascertain the facts, whether the wineries were aware of this issue or not.

Do you have business with the Garibaldi, Aurora and Salton wineries, which outsourced services to the companies involved? No. I’ve already sold a small batch, but it’s been a while and I’ve made visits. It’s unbelievable. We were taken by surprise. We look for small producers to tell stories about grapes and production. History is an added value of wine.

Is the consumer aware of this? Is he worried about it? Many wineries put it on the back label when they have manual harvesting of the grapes. This has a why. The human hand is much more delicate than the machine. With this, the grape does not get hurt. The grape does not need anything else to ferment. The yeast itself is present in the rind. When you remove a grape from the bunch, that little hole is enough for the yeasts to enter and start the process of alcoholic fermentation. Therefore, manual harvesting is more valued.

There’s a romantic part of the energy of the people there. the harvest [como é chamada a colheita das uvas] that we see in magazines and in movies shows that workers are happy. Workers sing in the vineyard. This is what is preached in wine marketing.

When we see news like this, that there is an electric shock, disrespect, obviously, the worker who touches the grapes transmits this energy, which is sadness. We don’t sell wine without content. The consumer wants this.

Are you going to speak with producers to understand if this was an isolated case or if it is a common practice? This topic will be included in our commercial meetings. We need to sell the truth and treat wine as a means of expanding human consciousness due to this whole process. So that we don’t contradict our proposal and our values, we’ll find out with each producer.

How will the market protect itself from this? How will they look at the supply chain? We’ll have to look for security seals. We may have new ideas. We can think of putting a stamp on Brazilian wine, with green hands indicating that the winery respects the worker who made the human harvest. This is work that can be done, to show abroad.

I believe there are ways to reverse this situation. We, as exporters, who represent the brands, will charge, because that could burn our brand. The visibility of this situation should make those who do this behind the scenes rethink. And the consumer will also want to know.

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