The deepest, most coherent Italian-leaning wine programme in Brazil and the city's reference point for serious Nebbiolo drinking.
list · Modern Saint VinSaint is the closest thing Sao Paulo has to a working Italian enoteca — long marble counter, twenty stools, the smell of cured pork and reduction sauce, and a list that runs to nine hundred bins without ever feeling padded. Owner Marcelo Copello buys directly from a tight roster of growers across Piedmont, Etna and the Veneto, and the by-the-glass rotation moves on a fortnightly cycle that favours Nebbiolo curiosities over predictable Barolo.
The kitchen turns out blistered focaccia, anchovy-laced vitello tonnato and a duck ragù pappardelle that has been on the menu since opening. Service is bilingual, opinionated and refreshingly indifferent to scores. Number two because it does the conventional enoteca template better than anyone in the country, and because no other Paulistano list goes this deep on Italy without padding.
For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in Sao-Paulo, the broader Sao-Paulo wine bars guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.