I’m working hard (swimming against the current) to change and surpass the anachronic preconception about the quality of our national wine, grown after years of mistaking by our past generations. My terroir is in Encruzilhada do Sul, South Brazil, one of the youngest new regions for viniculture in the country. There I depart from the top quality Brazilian fruit.

    I know later or soon the results of my personal efforts will be compensated, but by now I am trying to sell my small and relatively expensive production abroad in order to support the continuity of my project, as, unfortunately, Brazilian specialized media is too busy with the engagement to promote big Chilean and Argentinean wine companies here to spend their precious time to pay attention to minor "art happenings" as my winemaking conception, in despite of the absolute singularity of my approach, which consists basically in the manual harvest of the best fruits from the best Brazilian vineyard, located on our best new terroir, followed by a singular process in the whole commercial winemaking world: manual destemming. In other words: each individual grape is separated from the stem by hand, under visual selection. In the little book of my wine (you can see it on this web site) I expose in detail the unique results assured by this method. There is no English version for the whole site yet, but I will give you here a synthesis of the main information about my method, throughout explained in the book:

1. Manually selected harvest arrives to the atelier;

2. In a “clinically” cleaned and sterilized environment, grapes are manually destemmed. Only 100% healthy fruits are selected and crushed into the tank for skin contact. Bad fruits are visually separated and refused. Manual separation also assures that 100% of the stems are eliminated. Such a purity of fruit content is impossible to obtain with any automatic destemmer-crusher machine employed worldwide by the traditional industrial winemaking systems;

3. Once this perfect and pure fruit is crushed, skin contact process takes place. Extraction is reinforced and enhanced by manual remontage, several times by day. As no stem fragment or its juice is allowed to enter in the process, skin contact can be throughout prolonged in order to push extraction of colour and other positive elements from the fruit without affecting the elegance of the planned wine due to the inconvenient incorporation of rough green tannins from the stems;

4. I strongly believe oak contact and stem contact (caused by the violence of automatic destemming process, which can hurt stems and cause their fragments and liquid to be incorporated) frequently add to most of commercial wines a background noise we are so used to, we can't even perceive. Both substances add to the majority of the wines known the same sensorial descriptors, not only accepted, but also generally desired. As a matter of fact, there is a general harshness in most wines, which trends to mellow with time. But stocking is one of the expensive factors on winemaking. How to wait always so long, and how to always lose some delicate floral and fruit notes only I young red can show? On my approach for winemaking, both substances are avoided. It is not a statement of the absolute truth, as there is no absolute truth regarding to the wine world – thanks God, literally! But it is rather a choice and an individual style of winemaking: my wines are structured only over mature fruit tannins coming from the fruit skin, which assure immediate mellowness in harmony with moderate, well balanced astringency. As we know, tannins and other phenols and substances coming from oak or stems have different natures than those found in the skins, and they usually overwhelms delicate fruit notes with rough aggressive resin or herb greenness. Tannins are known as essential for good “keeping” or aging qualities, but they are generally responsible for the long time some wines need to be ready for appreciation. Astringency mellows with bottle aging, of course, and the chemical reduction of certain compounds into others, primarily by hydrolysis or oxidation, and the joining together of short molecular chains into larger ones, cause the volatile esters, ethers and acids to create the characteristic and so wanted bouquet. But we cannot deny the subtle qualities lost in the process, as floral, fresh red fruit, and a myriad of other delicate nuances. It seems impossible to keep one virtue without excluding the other. Through my personal wine style, I try to know, to explore, to keep and to bring in evidence these primitive, delicate notes;

5. Thanks to my personal method, in despite of being concentrated and well structured, my wines are already smooth in the very first youth. You can appreciate a fully bodied Cabernet Sauvignon on the same year of the harvest. And not only this: the absolute absence of oak and the green tannins coming from stems (and their liquid) assures not only mellowness, but also an unique expression of the fruit. For example, you can experiment a singular expression of Cabernet Sauvignon abstracting the characteristic green herb wildness of this variety and replacing it by subtle flower and fruit notes usually omitted or even lost. In short, this is the most fascinating exclusiveness we can find in my wines: a singular terroir in the world; a singular elaboration approach in the world, and a unique, singular expression of the variety in the world;

2. Tormentas is a millésime. As no artificial corrections or even blends with previous wines are allowed to improve or correct a given harvest, Tormentas will not be issued every year – it is the case of the Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, when trying to overmature fruit, I lost too much acidity and color, and partial botrytization of the harvest took place. So this vintage will be launched under a new label. The result was a sweet, alcoholic liquorous wine, differing too much from Tormenta’s style. Blended with 25% of the gorgeous, perfect Alicante Bouschet 2006, a fine balance and originality was found, and Minimus Anima was born. Here we have a good price for a rare, unique wine.

3. Needless to say chaptalisation is out of my vocabulary. On the last harvest (2005), we have reached to a historical record of 16,26 % vol. of natural alcohol on the Tannat variety from our vines, in Encruzilhada do Sul. The same happened in 2006. It expresses the serious improvements we are applying on the field, regarding to the fruit quality in detriment of quantity. I am very concerned on improving natural concentration of my wines, each year. But I refuse any fashioned behaviour. I am not against “technological wines”, but it is not my cup of tea. So, even if my Tormentas Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 expressed 13,5 % vol. of natural alcohol, its color is far different from its Chilean and Argentinean homonyms. It express not only fidelity to the typicality of the variety grown under the nature and conditions of our terroir, but also my refusal to the employment of enzymes to improve color extraction and even blends with color varieties of grapes, if merely added to assure a fashionable deepness of color.

    Born in Caxias do Sul, South Brazil, 1966, with Italian roots and double-citizenship, he descends from the large community of northern Italian from Venice who immigrated to south Brazil on the second half of 19th century. This valorous working people, as well as the German immigrants whom sat on the same region, among many contributions for the country are responsible for the wine history in Brazil. They brought the first plants in their luggage, on the early 1875, and from that time on, never stopped making their wine. Nowadays, almost 100% of Brazilian wineries belong to the northern Italian descendants.
    Graduated in Advertising, he has more than twenty years experience as a fine art and commercial photographer; and had had a studio and a small publishing company for fine art photography in Paris, where his interest for wine grew and he started his self-education on winemaking. When he left France, a French editor bought the rights of some art photos from his personal collection, which are published and sold in Paris till today. The same passion and enthusiasm that he has for his art has been put into the crafting of his wine, always looking for perfection. The same hope to convey originality, the same passion that moved his art creation has been put into his winemaking approach, and he deeply believe the reflex of this ideal can be found on each bottle of his wine, perhaps the only wine offered for sale in the world that is 100% hand crafted.