Chile and Argentina are currently the dominant players in the Latin American wine market. Their neighbor Brazil is hoping to get into the business as well. CCTV’s Stephen Gibbs reports.

Much of Brazil’s wine is produced in the country’s “valley of the vineyards”, outside the Southern city of Porto Alegre.

Italian migrants first came to Brazil’s Bento Goncalves valley one hundred and forty years ago. They soon set about recreating much of the old country they had left behind. This also included the making of wine.

Brazil

Chile and Argentina are currently the dominant players in the Latin American wine market. Their neighbor Brazil is hoping to get into the business as well. CCTV’s Stephen Gibbs reports.

Reminders of those early days are everywhere, such as the underground wine cellar in all of Brazil.The Miolo vineyard is one example of the last century’s wine production. Giussepe Miolo planted the first vines here at the end of the nineteenth century.

His great granddaughter believes now the moment is right to sell Brazilian wine back to Europe, and beyond. The Miolo Wine Group says that thanks in part to the World Cup, and a vogue in all things Brazilian, export sales are up 100 percent in the first 6 months of this year.

Even so, it is Brazil’s still largely untapped domestic market which is arguably the bigger prize. A culture of drinking wine is not widespread here, and one reason is price. At least 50 percent of the cost of a bottle of Brazilian wine, sold in Brazil, is tax.

The first European settlers here believed that life without good wine was impossible. Now their descendants hope to spread that message further afield.

Follow Stephen Gibbs on Twitter @STHGibbs

Dry weather in recent months may be putting a damper on some of Brazil’s other exports.

Paulo Sotero, Director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, shares his insight on the impact the drought is having on crops and the economy at large.