Brazil’s Best

When you think of Brazil, you imagine samba, the girl from Ipanema, and Corcovado with its colossal Cristo Redentor statue. I doubt you think wine. While Brazil’s South American neighbors—Argentina and Chile—have swept the wine world with their bold Malbec and Carménère reds, Brazil is not known wine-wise, although domestically makes excellent sparkling wine. Something monumental happened just months ago: The Brazilian wine region of Altos de Pinto Bandeira received a Denominación de Origen (DO) becoming the first DO exclusively for sparkling wine in the New World. This is groundbreaking, bringing Brazil’s Pinto Bandeira into the prestigious DO club with France’s Champagne and Italy’s Franciacorta.

Mario Geisse, considered the grandfather of Brazil’s quality sparkling wine industry, worked for 10 years to bring about this rare DO recognition. In the mid-’70s, then Chilean winemaker Geisse was tapped by Moet & Chandon to work for Chandon in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul. For three years, Geisse made wine in the Charmat method (generating bubbles by carbonating the wine in steel tanks) versus the more expensive and elaborate méthode Champenoise, which involves a second fermentation in the bottle and long aging on the yeasts to refine the wine before it is riddled and disgorged.