Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense, 1951 Granja União Cabernet Franc
I suspect that if I asked most wine professionals and wine enthusiasts, what they know about Brazilian wine, the answer would be nothing or very little. To catch you up, here are some quick stats:
Brazil is the 3rd largest wine producing country in South America
It is the 6th largest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere
There are approximately 80,000ha under vine (compare that to Argentina with over 215K hectares, Chile with over 145K hectares, and 5990 hectares in Uruguay)
In 2020, approximately 5 million litres were exported to 76 countries
Brazil is the largest producer of sparkling wine in Latin America
To that last point, if you have had a Brazilian wine before or have at least heard of it, the subject of your knowledge is likely the country's quality sparkling wines.
Brazil's history of sparkling wine production can be traced back to the late 1880s. While Brazil's history as a wine producing country begins with the Portuguese colonialists who planted the first vinifera vines in 1532 and produced the first Brazilian wine in 1551, it took over 300 years before a viable wine industry began to take shape.
One of the most significant shifts in the Brazilian wine landscape came with a large influx of Italian immigrants, most notably from Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardia and Veneto, who settled in Rio Grande do Sul in the 1870s. Today, the Rio Grande do Sul is the epicentre of Brazilian fine wine production thanks in large part due to the hard work, technical knowledge and Italian wine culture these immigrants brought with them.
It is these Italian immigrants who I can thank, in part, for having had a chance to try this rare piece of Brazilian wine history - a 1951 Cabernet Franc from the Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense with Brazilian-native Guilherme Schnitzler at his new home in Ontario just a few months ago.
Our 1951 Cabernet Franc, complete with mangled cork.
You see, Cabernet Franc is an historical grape variety in Brazil. Not hard to believe when you make the linkage between where the wave of Italian immigrants came from before settling in the Rio Grande do Sul in the southernmost part of Brazil. Coming from northern and northeastern Italy, these immigrants brought vine cuttings from their local vineyards bringing with them Italian varieties like Barbera, Caniaolo, Bonarda, Malvasia de Cândia, Moscato and Riesling Italico, but also French varieties like Cabernet Franc and Merlot, both of which would've been cultivated most notably in Northeast Italy, namely Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, thanks likely (at least in part) to nobleman Theordor de la Tour en Voire, who is credited with introducing French varieties to this part of Italy in the mid 1800s.
Established in 1929, the Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense was the union of 49 wine producers, many of whom were of Italian-descent, including Armando Peterlongo winery. Armando, a pharmacist by trade, was the son of Emanuelle Peterlongo, who is credited with making Brazil's first sparkling wine using the traditional (Champagne) method in 1913, and Armando's expertise in biochemistry coupled with his business acumen helped to set up the Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense for early success.
It was the first company to plant vineyards with vinifera varieties for commercial fine* wine production with the establishment of the 150 hectare Granja União vineyard with varieties like Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Barbera in 1931. (*At the time, table wine or jug wine represented the bulk of wine production.) The company was also the first to commercialize and bottle varietally-labelled wines in 1937. Over time, the company expanded its operations and became national, with facilities in several cities across the country, and was an important player in the Brazilian wine industry during the mid-1900s.
Photo via Memórias do Vinho Gaúcho by Rinaldo Dal Pizzol & Sérgio Inglez de Sousa
Despite major advancements in winemaking education, practical viticultural knowledge and industry structure during the 1930s, 40s and 50s, several domestic and international economic and political crises continued to hamper the development of Brazil's wine industry during the better part of the 20th century. While some historical wine companies survived this tumultuous period, many did not, including the Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense, which went bankrupt in the 1980s.
Now, for those keeping track, you might have noticed the label pictured above simply says "Cabernet." How do we know it is not Cabernet Sauvignon, or even a blend? While I don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, I have to rely on my sources in the industry and the books that are available, and there is no mention of Cabernet Sauvignon as a variety widely planted in this part of Brazil during this time period. Moreover, the book “Memórias do Vinho Gaúcho” by Rinaldo Dal Pizzol and Sérgio Inglez de Sousa repeatedly cites Cabernet Franc as the Cabernet that was planted during the time period leading up to and during the decades when Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense was operational. This information is also in line with what vine cuttings would’ve been most widely available in northern Italy based on what was planted there at the time, and thus these cuttings that would've been brought over in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, it is documented that Cabernet Sauvignon, which prefers warm, sunny climates, as opposed to the sub-tropical, humid climate of Brazil, was not successfully cultivated commercially in Brazil until the early 1980s, likely thanks to the rise in foreign investment in the 1970s, and one could infer that the results of the Judgement of Paris in 1976 also made Cabernet Sauvignon more fashionable, and thus desirable for cultivation. So, what is the current state of the Cabernet Franc picture in Brazil? About 125 hectares are planted in the country, with many vineyards having been grubbed up decades ago, and Cabernet Sauvignon, alas, is the #1 planted vitas vinifera variety in the country (insert disappointed emoji here).
Which now brings me to this bottle of 1951 Cabernet (Franc), and how I came to have the good fortune to try this rare bottle. Back in the late 1990s, now-sommelier Andrea Trentin's father made a most unlikely discovery while excavating the land on which part of the facilities of the now-closed Companhia Vinícola Rio-Grandense once stood. While the excavation was taking place, he discovered a chamber (or what could've been a underground cellar at the time) containing several dozen unlabelled bottles buried many metres below the surface. Despite being unlabelled, the bottles were easily identified as being produced by the winery thanks to its distinctive tin capsule. Buried deep with the bottles were tiny wooden signs indicating the variety (Cabernet) and vintages 1951 and 1955.
Image courtesy Andrea Trentin
Rather than throwing these bottles away, Andrea's father chose to store them in the family cellar for safe keeping, where they remained untouched for another 20 years. In 2018, while studying oenology and beginning her career in wine, Andrea decided to open a bottle and analyse the contents, discovering the wine was sound, stable, and in keeping with the vintage/variety as discovered in the cellar two decades earlier. Armed with this information, in 2019 they began to advertise the availability of these bottles for purchase, mostly by word of mouth through sommelier and wine circles in the Brazilian wine industry. Which is how Guilherme came to possess his bottles.
Over the course of the two years since launching this project, I have been fortunate to have met some incredible people, many of whom I now consider friends. Guilherme and I connected through Instagram in the spring of 2021, and at the time he was (and still is!) an avid taker of my now notorious Cab Franc Quiz. At the time, Guilherme was a wine professional based in southern Brazil, and following the quiz one day, he mentioned to me that he had a bottle of 1951 Cabernet Franc from Brazil. Naturally my jaw dropped and my eyes grew wide. Brazilian Cabernet Franc? From 1951? I'm thinking to myself, I need try this.
Months passed, and Guilherme shares with me that he and his wife have decided to leave Brazil to start a new life with their young son in Canada. In December 2021, not much more than a week before Christmas, Guilherme, his wife Beatriz, their toddler Leo, and two cats, packed up as many personal belongings as they could fit in a few suitcases and made the very long journey from São Paolo to Toronto. Among these personal affects (wrapped well in bubble wrap Guilherme assured me!) was his bottle of 1951 Granja União Cabernet Franc.
We finally managed to meet in person for lunch this summer at Guilherme and Beatriz's home in southwest Ontario. As it often goes with wine lovers and professionals alike, conversation and wine flowed, and they prepared a delicious Brazilian-inspired lunch to have alongside some wines. Then the time came to open the 1951. "Did you bring your Durand?" Guilherme asked me. Queue the face-palm moment, when I realize my ONE job was to bring my Durand, which I failed to do. Some expert cork surgery swiftly followed, and we poured into our glasses a taste of Brazilian wine history.
In the glass, the wine exceeded my expectations - sensorially and emotionally. It was sound, perhaps a touch oxidized, maybe a bit passed its prime, but if you looked closely, you could see the forest for the trees. The DNA of a well-made, well-intentioned wine was there. Notes of potting soil, wet autumn leaves, mushrooms, with a whisper of herbs and capsicum. Once opened, its life was fleeting, but its energy and vibrancy stuck around long enough to leave a mark on my journey studying this grape variety. Tasting old wines is always an emotional one for me. Reflecting on the time and place, and all that came before and after, so that a bottle could come to be.
And in the case of this 1951 Cabernet Franc, the word resilient immediately comes to mind. I've often referred to Cabernet Franc as a resilient grape - with ancient origins, having survived and thrived for likely a thousand years or more, adapting remarkably well in many climates and places, and remaining humbly steadfast in its purpose while trends and the world changes around it. This bottle embodies the resilient spirit of all the people who touched it along the way - from the early Italian settlers seeking to establish viticulture and winemaking in their newly adopted home; to Andrea and her family for preserving the heritage of these bottles and sharing it with others; to Guilherme and his family who made the over 8000km journey with this bottle, so that it could be generously shared among two strangers who are now friends, so that we could experience a piece of Brazilian wine - and Cabernet Franc - history together.
**
My deepest heartfelt thanks to sommelier Pablo S. Fernandez who shared invaluable information and translations from some key resources on the history of the Brazilian wine industry, Andrea Trentin for sharing details of her story with me, and Guilherme Schnitzler for carefully bringing this bottle to Ontario so that I could taste a piece of Cabernet Franc history.
(Sources: Wines of Brazil, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), The South American Wine Guide by Amanda Barnes, Memórias do Vinho Gaúcho by Rinaldo Dal Pizzol & Sérgio Inglez de Sousa)
