THE WINE CONNOISSEUR
by Chris Milner
Chris Milner, WSET Level 4 accredited and
Head of Drinks Menu development for all of the
restaurants across Fazenda Group talks Brazilian
wines, six litres of fun and wine masterclasses.
When we think about Brazil, we see beaches, rainforests,
football… but probably not wine. And there’s a good reason
for that. The Portuguese settlers in Brazil did try to plant
grapes, but it didn’t work, because it was too hot. That
might sound crazy when we think of most wine producing
countries as being warm, but in the genuinely tropical climate
of northern Brazil the European vine could not cope. What
did grow brilliantly though was sugar cane, from which they
make cachaça, the national drink and key ingredient of the
caipirinha.
Who needs wine then?
Fast forward a few hundred years and waves of European
immigration focused on the south of the country, where the
climate is a lot more moderate. One such wine lover was
Giuseppe Miolo, of Italian origin as the quicker amongst you
may have guessed, who set up in an area that was later to
become Vale Dos Vinhedos and is home of the vast majority
of Brazil’s quality wine output.
Miolo are now the biggest producer in Brazil and specialise in
using “international varieties” which, for the most part, means
French. The great wines of Bordeaux have inspired many
winemakers worldwide and it is no different here, with their
top wine Lote 43 being made from Cabernet Sauvignon and
Merlot. Italian winemaking in a Portuguese speaking country
using French grapes. Ok!
Last year Miolo hosted a cracking wine masterclass in Fazenda,
which lead to a conversation where it was brought up that they
did not have any large bottles available in the UK. Magnums
and jeroboams are fun. For a first class meal in a restaurant
that has become a haven for red meat, there is no finer site
than that of one of your colleagues struggling to hold a bottle
of wine that is clearly impractical to hold but looks amazing in
photographs. So this brings us to the present day and the six
litre bottle of wine you can see here.
For those of you who must know, the official name of the
six litre size is an Imperial. In Champagne they would call
it a Methusaleh, but we’ll go with the Bordeaux naming
convention for this one. Merlot, mais non?
Brazil still has a little way to catch up with the mad-aboutMalbec craze that has been sweeping the UK for the last
couple of years but if they wanted a flagship wine to kick
off their pursuit of global wine domination then this isn’t a
bad place to start. I guess with the World Cup and Olympics
having finished now, they need a new project and we think
this sounds a lot more fun than dressage or pole-vaulting.
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