Your humble narrator was wracking his brain earlier this month, trying to come up with a sufficiently romantic scheme to impress my lady friend on Valentine’s Day.
You can imagine my surprise when my lady friend announced that she had already prepared a whimsical and glamourous Valentine’s Day surprise that I would not soon forget. The only hints she let slip were that I should wear comfy pants, and to be prepared to enjoy the Full Brazilian Experience.
Before those readers with prurient imaginations jump to the wrong conclusions, The Full Brazilian Experience in question was a night out at Calgary’s famous Gaucho Brazilian restaurant, enjoying the lip-smacking wonders of slow-cooked Brazilian BBQ, all washed down with fine Brazilian wines.
In Brazilian cuisine, grilled meat is referred to as churrasco, and many Brazilian restaurants employ roving waiters with enormous chunks of grilled meat on large skewers, which are carved off into thin slices for each diner at the table.
Calgary boasts several Brazilian restaurants that follow this traditional serving method, and my special Valentine’s Day treat was no exception.
The best part of the evening was pairing the different cuts and preparations of meat with fine Brazilian wines, so I ordered several different glasses at once to enjoy them all.
Since most of Brazil is covered with the Amazonian jungle, it is a too damp and humid for optimal grape growing. For this reason, most of the grapes produced in Brazil are table grapes, but the wine industry is slowly growing.
The history of wine in Brazil goes all the way back to 1532, when Portuguese conquistadores claimed the land now known as Brazil as part of the Portuguese Empire. Unfortunately, most of Brazil is too close to the equator to successfully grow grapes, so early attempts at a domestic wine industry were mostly unsuccessful.
The domestic wine industry finally gained momentum in the 1870’s, driven by waves of Italian immigrants who brought old-world Italian vines and winemaking expertise to Brazil.
It took another century for the quality to really catch up with the rest of the world, and the year 1970 is seen as the birth of the modern Brazilian wine industry.
Our local booze merchants still stock a much greater variety of wines from the neighbouring countries of Argentina and Chile, but Brazilian wines are slowly becoming more common on the export market.
One reason for the slow growth of Brazilian wine is the overwhelming popularity of Brazil’s national spirit, known as Cachaça, which is made by fermenting and distilling the juice from sugarcane.
It turns out that Cachaça is by far the most popular booze in Brazil, with per capita consumption of around 8 litres. Remember, that’s 8 litres of a distilled spirit, which would correspond to around 100 litres of beer, or 50 litres of wine.
To compare, Brazilians only consume around 2 litres of wine per capita each year, so it is clear the domestic wine industry still has a lot of room to grow.
The bulk of the Brazilian wine industry is concentrated in the southern tip of the country, furthest from the tropical heat of the equator. With most of the winemaking expertise coming from Italian immigrants, it is unsurprising that Italian grape varietals and winemaking styles have found a home in Brazil.
Brazil’s biggest impact on the world wine market has been in the form of sparkling white wines, mostly made from Chardonnay and Semillon grapes, usually in the Spumante or Prosecco styles first made famous in Italy.
Well-stocked booze merchants in Alberta do carry a few Brazilian wines, mostly from the largest two producers, Miolo and Salton, who both have a range of white and reds available.
Since I was gorging on Brazilian BBQ, my wine choices leaned towards the more full-bodied reds, mostly made from the Tannat and Cab Sauv grape varietals.
Tannat is an interesting grape, rarely seen outside of Italy, and made for a perfect pairing with the smoky flavours of the slow-grilled beef and pork that arrived at our table by skewer-wielding waiters eager to slice off thin strips for our enjoyment.
So, if your only past experience with the Full Brazilian has been of a more intimate nature, your humble narrator heartily recommends the other Full Brazilian experience, by picking up a few bottles at your local booze merchant!
