Minas Gerais Winery Challenges Tradition, Scores Historic 96 Points, and Turns the Tide of Brazilian Wine

Written by Caio Aviz

Published on 03/07/2025 at 17:50

Updated on 03/07/2025 at 17:51

Campo de vinhedo bem cuidado, com fileiras de parreiras alinhadas em meio à natureza exuberante.

Be the first to react!

Isabela Syrah 2023 Elevates Southern Minas to the Top of Global Viticulture

The viticulture of Minas Gerais achieved historic recognition in 2025 with the Isabela Syrah 2023, a label from Vinícola Maria Maria.
It is located in Boa Esperança, in southern Minas Gerais.
The wine received a gold medal and an impressive 96 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), held in London.
This information was released in May 2025 by the Decanter organization.
The award evaluated labels from over 50 countries and highlighted the Syrah from Minas.
It became the highest-rated in Brazil of all time.
This result marks a turning point for the sector, according to Eduardo Junqueira Nogueira Neto.
He is the commercial director of Maria Maria.

Global Recognition Valuates Double Pruning

For the first time, the Isabela Syrah 2023 stood out as the only Brazilian wine awarded gold in the 2025 edition.
Produced with Syrah grapes cultivated at Fazenda Capetinga, the label employs an unorthodox technique: double pruning.
This method has been researched by Murilo Regina from Epamig since 2007.
The practice is also known as inverted cycle.
It consists of two annual prunings to harvest grapes in the dry winter of Minas.
This climate provides ideal conditions for maturation and reduces the risk of fungal diseases.
Thus, it reveals intense aromas of red and black fruits, in addition to spices.
Among them, black pepper, cinnamon, and fennel stand out.
This explanation comes from winemaker Isabela Peregrino, who lends her name to the label.

Detailed Production Ensures Quality

With vinification in stainless steel tanks, without aging in oak barrels, the Isabela Syrah showcases the Minas terroir in a pure and intense way.
Multiple vinifications in small batches were required, with maceration ranging from eight to twenty days, always under strict control.
The result, as released by the winery’s technical team in June 2025, is a Syrah with soft tannins and balanced acidity.
It has a persistent finish and is ideal for consumption between 2025 and 2028.
The price, at R$160 on the official e-commerce site, reflects the quality and pioneering technique.
These techniques were applied in both cultivation and vinification.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Family Tradition Drives Innovation

The history of Vinícola Maria Maria began with the coffee tradition of the Junqueira Nogueira family from Três Pontas, Minas Gerais.
This family boasts six generations dedicated to coffee.
The heart attack of patriarch Eduardo Nogueira in 2007 brought wine into the family’s routine by medical advice.
From travels and studies, Eduardo became familiar with Epamig’s experiments with double pruning.
This practice boosted viticulture in the region.
Today, in addition to the award-winning Isabela Syrah, the winery offers labels such as Juliana Rosé Syrah 2024 and Júlia Sauvignon Blanc 2024.
Also noteworthy are Gaia Syrah 2021 and Gaia Gran Reserva Syrah 2021.
The portfolio meets the growing interest of domestic and foreign wine enthusiasts.

Minas Potential Attracts Wine Tourism

For commercial director Eduardo Junqueira Nogueira Neto, the international award therefore highlights the potential of southern Minas for the wine world.
In an interview with local press at the end of June 2025, he also emphasized that the achievement will attract visitors, investors, and wine tourists.
The region is thus consolidating itself as a cradle of world-class wines.
The goal, therefore, is to show that Minas produces more than coffee and cheese.
Moreover, we produce wines of the highest quality, with a unique identity and remarkable flavor.

Minas Gerais Winery Challenges Tradition, Scores Historic 96 Points, and Turns the Tide of Brazilian Wine

Isabela Syrah 2023 Elevates Southern Minas to the Top of Global Viticulture

Global Recognition Valuates Double Pruning

Detailed Production Ensures Quality

Family Tradition Drives Innovation

Minas Potential Attracts Wine Tourism

The Soviet Union spent 22 years drilling into the Earth’s crust and reached a depth of 12,262 meters — they found water where it was thought impossible, hydrogen bubbling from the rock, granite that is 2.7 billion years old, and temperatures of 180 degrees that melted the drill bits.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

Norway is drilling 27 kilometers of rock 392 meters below the bottom of a fjord to build the world’s largest and deepest underwater road tunnel — when completed, a 21-hour journey will be reduced to 10.

An astronaut spent 340 days in space while his twin brother stayed on Earth, and NASA found a “rejuvenating” effect, genes, microbiome, cognition, and immune system that revealed the biological cost of living outside the planet.

After 14 years of construction and a diplomatic crisis that nearly led to a military confrontation over control of the Nile, Ethiopia inaugurated the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa — the dam is 170 meters high, holds 74 billion cubic meters of water, and generates 5,150 megawatts.

Believe it, it existed in ancient India: for over 2,000 years, execution by elephant used sacred animals to crush convicts in public and spread fear as a brutal display of power.

A petrochemical company in the Brazilian Northeast was identified as responsible for an evacuation of 60,000 people after extracting rock salt under entire neighborhoods and leaving streets, houses, and buildings marked by cracks.

Hidden cave under a castle in Wales reveals 120,000 years of history, with fossils of extinct animals, stone tools, and rare clues about ancient humans

Ground subsidence in a city in Northeast Brazil forces 60,000 residents to leave their homes after rock salt extraction opened cracks, emptied entire neighborhoods, and transformed traditional areas into almost abandoned zones.

Minas Gerais Winery Challenges Tradition, Scores Historic 96 Points, and Turns the Tide of Brazilian Wine

Isabela Syrah 2023 Elevates Southern Minas to the Top of Global Viticulture

Global Recognition Valuates Double Pruning

Detailed Production Ensures Quality

Family Tradition Drives Innovation

Minas Potential Attracts Wine Tourism

The Soviet Union spent 22 years drilling into the Earth’s crust and reached a depth of 12,262 meters — they found water where it was thought impossible, hydrogen bubbling from the rock, granite that is 2.7 billion years old, and temperatures of 180 degrees that melted the drill bits.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

Norway is drilling 27 kilometers of rock 392 meters below the bottom of a fjord to build the world’s largest and deepest underwater road tunnel — when completed, a 21-hour journey will be reduced to 10.

An astronaut spent 340 days in space while his twin brother stayed on Earth, and NASA found a “rejuvenating” effect, genes, microbiome, cognition, and immune system that revealed the biological cost of living outside the planet.

After 14 years of construction and a diplomatic crisis that nearly led to a military confrontation over control of the Nile, Ethiopia inaugurated the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa — the dam is 170 meters high, holds 74 billion cubic meters of water, and generates 5,150 megawatts.

For the first time this century, the corn area in Europe is expected to fall below 8 million hectares because the war in Iran caused fertilizer prices to skyrocket, and farmers are switching to sunflower, which offers better margins.

An inland city in Santa Catarina produces almost 600,000 tons of meat per year, enough to supply the whole of Brazil 14 times, and single-handedly slaughters over 4 million pigs, accounting for more than a quarter of the state’s total production.

While the world knows Brazil for its common coffee, China is opening its doors to Brazilian specialty coffees with quality certification and traceability, and a single fair in Shanghai showed that this market could yield more than US$100 million for the country.

Exports give a boost to Brazilian agribusiness and maintained its strength in January, with proteins, vegetable oils, food, and beverages offsetting some of the losses in sectors that depend more on the domestic market.

Woman runs poultry farm alone for years, faces extreme routine with 30 thousand birds, sleeps in the poultry house to save chicks, until son takes over in 2023 and boosts productivity with modern technical management.

Believe it, it existed in ancient India: for over 2,000 years, execution by elephant used sacred animals to crush convicts in public and spread fear as a brutal display of power.

A petrochemical company in the Brazilian Northeast was identified as responsible for an evacuation of 60,000 people after extracting rock salt under entire neighborhoods and leaving streets, houses, and buildings marked by cracks.

Hidden cave under a castle in Wales reveals 120,000 years of history, with fossils of extinct animals, stone tools, and rare clues about ancient humans

Ground subsidence in a city in Northeast Brazil forces 60,000 residents to leave their homes after rock salt extraction opened cracks, emptied entire neighborhoods, and transformed traditional areas into almost abandoned zones.