The road winds through acres of persimmon trees. In the uplands of Serra Gaúcha, in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, sheep graze on green meadows. Visitors often picture Brazil as a land of thick rainforests and long sandy beaches. But at Monte Astral, a winery near the city of Farroupilha, the landscape looks more like Tuscany, with rolling hills covered in vineyards and olive groves.
Brazil has traditionally favored beer and cocktails over wine. Yet its wine scene is expanding. According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, consumption reached 4.4 million hectoliters in 2025, up 41.9 percent from the unusually low level recorded in 2024. A decade ago, wine bars were rare in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and places serving Brazilian wine were even harder to find. Today, both are much more common.
Rio Grande do Sul, which borders Uruguay and Argentina, is Brazil's main wine region. In the 19th century, Italian and German settlers arrived and found conditions well suited to grapes: high ground, warm summers, and cool winters. They began planting vines.
Monte Astral is a relative newcomer. Paulo Rutzen and his wife, Fernanda, founded it in 2017, and it made its first wine from its own grapes in 2021. Rutzen, a former lawyer, businessman, and race car driver, discovered natural wine during business trips to France in the early 2010s, when it was becoming popular in Paris. Back in Brazil, the light, easy-drinking wines he enjoyed were difficult to find.
"I always wanted to make wine, so we decided to produce our own," Rutzen says while walking through his vineyard.
He chose to farm the 17-acre property according to biodynamic principles. This approach treats the farm as one connected system and, at Monte Astral, means avoiding conventional pesticides. Birds and insects now fill the air around the vines.
Monte Astral remains small, but its wines have begun appearing in leading São Paulo restaurants and wine bars. At the time of the visit, the winery produced 25,000 bottles in 15 styles. Most were light and juicy, made from grapes including pinot noir, cabernet franc, sangiovese, and chardonnay.
This willingness to experiment is typical of a young wine scene still finding its identity. "Everyone's trying to see what works," Rutzen says, "then narrow it down." In these southern hills, Brazil has more to offer than beaches and rainforest.