Vocational day in to Casa Geraldo

On Wednesday Russ, Ashley and I had quite a treat. Miguel, the GSE coordinator for this district set up a tour of a local winery, Casa Geraldo. Carlos Geraldo Marcon, one of the grandsons and the enologist for the winery, took us on a special tour. We first watched a video (in Portuguese) on the history of wine in Brazil as well as the history of Casa Geraldo. Carlos then took us on a tour from vine to wine. Sparkling wine (espumantes) is very popular in Brazil. There are several ways to produce a sparkling wine, Casa Geraldo uses the Charmat process, which is when the wine undergoes a secondary fermentation in bulk tanks designed to withstand the pressures involved. The wine is then bottled under pressure. The four of us were the first to try the latest Brut, it was delicious!

We continued our tour throughout the winery. I learned that they use everything, like many businesses we visited in Brazil, nothing is wasted. The seeds are sent to the cosmetics industry, the skins are pressed a second time to make grappa and cognac. The rest of is put in the fields as fertilizer. Casa Geraldo has two lines the one they sell 2.5 million liters of (the most popular and least expensive) are bottled in bottles that can be returned. The winery will then clean them for reuse. After three years, the American oak barrels are sent to be scrapped and then used for cachaça, which is a popular liquor in Brazil.

The final stage of our tour included a quick tour of the lab and a tasting of what they had to offer. My personal favorites were the Moscato Giallo, an off dry white that had a delicious passion fruit aroma, that tricks you into thinking it’s sweet, but it finishes dry, much like a Pinot Grigio. They also had a Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Tannat blend, a dry red with black berry aromas and a slightly toasted finish. Delicioso!