São Paulo Countryside Expands Production Borders of Good Wines in Brazil

10/13/2016 - 15h04

It was during a party with friends, on the farm his family had recently bought for leisure time, that lawyer Luís Roberto Lorenzato di Ivrea realized that he could make wine right there, in Ituverava, in the Ribeirão Preto region (313 kilometers from São Paulo).

A descendant of Italian winemakers, Ivrea knew that a wide range of temperature variation is essential for the growth of grapevines and, thus, grapes to produce wine. In 2013, he produced the first batch of his Marchese Di Ivrea.

Resemblances with European wine producing systems also led the Guaspari family to start a vineyard in an old coffee farm in the city of Espírito Santo do Pinhal (189 kilometers from São Paulo).

"After a study we did, we found granite soil here, the same found in the Rhône valley, in France, that is why we decided to give it a try," says Marina Guaspari Gonçalves, a partner in the vineyard. The first batch came out in 2014.

The two companies are examples of a movement to expand the frontiers of wine-producing areas in the country, currently concentrated in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, in the Mantiqueira and Fluminense mountain chains – it stretches to the Chapada Diamantina, in the state of Bahia.

The wines produced are of good quality, different from the table wines traditionally made in cities like São Roque. And although production is still small, the regions are already attracting tourists.

The seed of this new frontier was a research led by agricultural engineer Murillo Regina. After studying the effects of the weather on the grapes in the French region of Bordeaux, Regina took the concept of double pruning or inverted pruning to the region.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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