Rio Grande do Sul is Brazil's most prolific wine-producing state. It is located in the very South of the country along the Uruguayan and Argentinian borders.
The wine regions of Serra Gaucha, Campanha and Vale do Vinhedos can be found in this Part of the country. Soft, light red wines from a range of varieties such as Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat are made here.
Rich white wines from Chardonnay and Viognier are also produced. However, it is the fresh, FruitySparkling wines made here in the Italian spumante style that have captured the most attention.
Today, Rio Grande do Sul is responsible for around 90 percent of Brazilian wine production, although only a small amount of this is quality wine made from Vitis vinifera grape varieties. Vitis labrusca and Hybrid grape varieties such as Isabella and Concord are better suited to the terroir here and still make up the majority of plantings.
The state lies some 650 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of the city of Sao Paulo and 300km (200 miles) North of the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. Rio Grande do Sul (which means "great river of the south") is essentially a continuation of the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay.
These are fertile lowlands that consist mainly of low, rolling hills and plains. In the more northern part of the state, the landscapes rise into low mountain ranges that extend northward into the bordering state, Santa Catarina.
Pinot noir is an important red grape variety in Burgundy and Champagne, and its reputation is well known! Great wines such as the Domaine de la Romanée Conti elaborate their wines from this famous grape variety, and make it a great variety. When properly vinified, pinot noit produces red wines of great finesse, with a wide range of aromas depending on its advancement (fruit, undergrowth, leather). it is also the only red grape variety authorized in Alsace. Pinot Noir is not easily cultivated beyond our borders, although it has enjoyed some success in Oregon, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
red wines from the region of Rio Grande do Sul go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, game (deer, venison) or lamb such as recipes of greek moussaka, stuffed rabbit in the oven or leg of lamb cooked in yoghurt / tave kosi (albania).
On the nose in the region of Rio Grande do Sul often reveals types of flavors of cherry, black olive or cocoa and sometimes also flavors of black fruits, clove or cassis. In the mouth in the region of Rio Grande do Sul is a powerful with a lot of tannins present in the mouth.
A total of £72,600 was raised from 79 lots at the sixteenth DWWA wine auction hosted by Christie’s on 2 December – beating a record set in 2018. This total excludes Christie’s buyer’s premium. All proceeds will be added to funds raised by Decanter throughout the DWWA this year. Charities supported include The Drinks Trust, WaterAid, Cancer Research UK, Change Please, Decanter Apprenticeships and more. Over the past 12 months, Decanter has donated in excess of £100,000 to these charities. T ...
Disconcerting: I couldn’t forget this bottle for days afterwards. Still can’t. Back in August, wine critic Lin Liu MW (together with her partner Philippe Lejeune of Château de Chambert in Cahors) came to dinner, en route to a short holiday in Provence. One of the bottles Lin brought for us to try together was the 2018 Les Rocheuses, Parcelles No 5 et 6, from Château Le Rey in Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux. It came in a slope-shouldered bottle, not a classic Bordeaux bottle. We tried it with some R ...
Nowhere is the disparity in quality more evident this year than in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. A lot of Tradition bottlings were disappointingly lean and scrawny, but the best terroirs really shined, producing athletic, elegant wines of intensity and panache. Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for the top scoring Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2020 wines {"content":"PHA+PGEgaHJlZj0iaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVjYW50ZXIuY29tL3dpbmUvZ3JhcGUtdmFyaWV0aWVzL2dyZW5hY2hlLWdhcm5hY2hhLyI+PHN0cm9uZz5HcmVuYWNoZTwv ...
