Marcia and I spent the weekend in Rio de Janeiro and went to dinner at an exotically located and competent restaurant called Aprazível that has the most counter-culture (and therefore most interesting) Brazilian wine list I've seen so far, courtesy of Jonathan Nossiter who, as many of you know, married a Brazilian and now lives in Rio. We ordered from a section of the list that had some pre-Nossiter odds and ends, but for the main section he seemed to have done a good job of picking just about every out-of-favor Brazilian wine around. A praiseworthy feat, given that most Brazilian wines suffer from acute Andean envy and would love to be low acid/high alcohol/fruit compote (but we don't have high altitude deserts that require constant irrigation and produce cooked grapes that can only be picked supermature lest the tannins be too green). The non-Brazilian section had some interesting wines that are basically unknown in Brazil, e.g. forum faves Baudry Chinon, but at the wallet-raping prices practiced here, and only partially justifiable by the 215% import taxes. The basic Baudry Chinon was $125. Feel our pain.
1999 Dal Pizzol Do Lugar Cabernet Franc Reserva da Familia
Last bottle on hand. Old, for a Brazilian wine, with appropriately soiled label. Faded magenta, with bricking at the rims. Pungent barnyard, leather and some loamy forest floor. Fine acidity, light and pleasant bitter finish. Nice, but a bit thin. Would take more fruit and extraction to become pleasurable, but had its own quiet dignity and wasn't trying to be from anywhere else. Marcia sneezed 10 times, so I estimate 100mg/l SO2.
