The world drinks less.
Brazil drinks better.

Editorial

Why read the back of the bottle

Every bottle has two sides: the front label, made to seduce — and the back label (in Portuguese, the contrarrótulo), required by law to tell the truth. This magazine chose the back.

Contrarrótulo is born with a single rule, inherited from the house that publishes it: no source, no publishing. Every number cited here has a verifiable origin — official reports, industry bodies, legislation. Whatever is opinion will come signed as opinion. Whatever is advertising (if there's ever any) will come labeled as advertising, never inside the content.

Once a month, this magazine will tell you what happened, what's happening and what's coming in the world of wine — no sommelier-speak, no automatic reverence, and with a commitment to translating jargon into the language you'd use at a bar table.

This issue nº 0 is a pilot: an introductory toast, served in a small glass, so you can get a feel for the house style. Issue nº 1 arrives with the launch of the new vinhozinho.com.br — where, by the way, each issue will have its own page and will reach the people on the e-mail list first.

Savor in moderation. Not the reading, though: have as much of that as you like.

It happened · world

The wine planet shrank again — and Brazil rowed the other way

The annual report from the OIV, the international organization that audits the sector, confirmed it in May: 2025 was the fourth year in a row of falling consumption worldwide. The exceptions fit in a glass — and one of them is Brazil.

The good news is in the details: among the few countries where consumption is growing, the OIV lists Portugal, Japan — and Brazil. And in production, the country is in the group that recovered from 2024, alongside New Zealand and South Africa.

The no-fuss translation: while the traditional wine world tightens its belt, Brazilians are drinking more — and, judging by the numbers from recent vintages, drinking more and more wine made here in Brazil. That's exactly the wave this magazine intends to ride with you.

Sources: OIV — State of the World Wine Sector in 2025 (released May 12, 2026, Dijon) · oiv.int

It happened · Brazil

2026 Vintage: Brazilian wine has never fit on so many maps

The 34th Avaliação Nacional de Vinhos (Brazil's National Wine Evaluation) — the big annual tasting held by the Associação Brasileira de Enologia (the Brazilian Enology Association) — set a record for entries and, for the first time, brings together wines from ten states and the Federal District.

Samples start being collected at the wineries in August; in September, the technical tasting picks the wines that represent the vintage. The grand finale — open to the public, with 800 seats — takes place on October 17, in Bento Gonçalves (RS).

The detail that says it all about the moment: the tasting only accepts dry fine wine from vinifera grapes, in six categories, from base wine for sparkling to reds for aging. And even with the bar set this high, the map of Brazilian wine didn't just grow; it became more diverse than many restaurant wine lists.

Sources: Associação Brasileira de Enologia — Avaliação Nacional de Vinhos Safra 2026 · anvinhos.com.br · Agrolink · Melhor do Sul

In the glass

Brazilian sparkling wine: the home team plays at home

If there's one subject where Brazil talks to the world as an equal, it's bubbles.

More than 80% of Brazil's wine is born in the Serra Gaúcha, a legacy of the Italian immigration of 1875 — and it's in sparkling wine that this legacy shines. The mountain climate delivers grapes with the lively acidity that bubbles demand, and century-old houses like the pioneering Peterlongo (1915, historically the only Brazilian producer authorized to use the term “champagne” on its labels) share shelf space with traditional method projects that have won awards around the world, such as Cave Geisse, in Pinto Bandeira — a micro-region that earned its own Denomination of Origin for sparkling wines.

How to order without fear: “brut” is the classic dry; “nature” and “extra brut”, even drier; “moscatel”, the sweet, aromatic one that made Farroupilha a capital. Traditional method gives fine bubbles and bready notes; Charmat preserves the fruit. Neither is “the right one” — it's about the occasion, not a hierarchy.

Sources: Embrapa Uva e Vinho · Aprovale · the houses mentioned (official websites) — none of them paid to be mentioned

Coming up

Mark your calendar

• SEP 2026
  Northern hemisphere harvest

  All of Europe is harvesting: from Champagne to the Douro, September is the month the Old World turns into an anthill — and the regions welcome visitors in the middle of the harvest.

• SEP 1 to 4
  Selection Tasting — 2026 Vintage (ABE)

  The technical stage that picks the wines representing the record Brazilian vintage.

• OCT 17
  Avaliação Nacional de Vinhos — Bento Gonçalves (RS)

  The grand finale of the 2026 Vintage, open to the public (800 seats). The biggest yearly thermometer of Brazilian wine.

• OCT
  Nebbiolo harvest + white truffle — Piedmont (Italy)

  The Barolo harvest and the Alba fair on the same trip: October is the most indulgent month of the year for anyone crossing the ocean.

This month's strikethrough

“Notes of minerality” → tastes like wet stone

Everyone uses it, nobody can define it — not even science, which is still debating whether it exists. Use it guilt-free, but know this: anyone who says “minerality” with a straight face is just as lost as you are. The difference is that now you know it.

From the ballot box

Round Nº 1: which supermarket red up to R$ 50 is worth the money?

On the new vinhozinho.com.br — being bottled as we speak — rankings are decided by the people who pay for their own bottle. Never by advertisers.

The first round is already loaded in the cellar, with ten labels every Brazilian has faced on the supermarket shelf: from the ever-present Chileans to the everyday Brazilian workhorses. One vote per label, no sign-up, and the score only opens after 30 votes — the house's anti-herd rule: nobody anchors anybody else's opinion.

In the next issues, Contrarrótulo will publish the result of each round with an honest analysis of what the community crowned — and the next ballot box already warmed up with readers' suggestions (the first nomination has already come in: an age-worthy Portuguese wine that hovers around fifty reais).

From the cellar

Waiting for you on the new site, free: the No-Fuss Pocket Guide — the 20 terms that solve 90% of shelves — and a searchable glossary with 42 entries (and an easter egg under the letter V). It all opens together. This list gets in first.