I recently had the opportunity to combine two of my acitivies: Wine Consulting and English Coaching, in a tour to the Vineyards Valley - located in Southern Brazilian, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
A group of English language learners accepted the challenge to practice the language in a different environment, while having fun and tasting some wine - not that hard to do.
We left Porto Alegre very early on a Saturday morning towards the mountains, where Vale dos Vinhedos is located. Vale dos Vinhedos is the only
region in Brazil to have a D.O. (Designation of Origin) for its wines and where some of the most important Brazilian wineries are located.
The weather forecast wasn't the best one for that day, but, as usual, it was wrong! We had a beautiful and sunny day.
Our first visit was to Lídio Carraro, one of the most successful exporters of Brazilian wines.
It is a family run business and so was our tour!
We were welcomed by the mother Isabel Carraro who gave us a brief in Portuguese of what we would be explained in English by Patricia Carraro - the Marketing Manager.
We had some introduction to the winery and its production and after tasted some very balanced, elegant and tasty wines: Dádivas Chardonnay, Dádivas Pinot Noir, Agnus Cabernet Sauvigon, Elos e Quorum - an excellent blend of four varieties and their best grapes.
The group did well, usdertanding almost all the explanation, however, as wine was a new subject to almost all, I helped translating from the English explanation to a Portuguese one.
It was noon when we headed to our lunch in a Italian style local restaurant Mamma Gema, which has an "all you can eat" service.
It was a delicious and enjoynable time.
We finished our tour visiting a young winery with a very new aproach to wine - for this region at least.
For that I mean that they don't stuck in past and neither do what everyone does.
Almaúnica is the name of the winery full of good surprises and that offers a charmly different style and has outsanding quality.
I have previously tasted many of their products, so I chose something new to me: Almaúnica Nature - a tradicional method sparkling wine that stayed 26 months on its lees and had 20% of it aged in new French oak barrics.
It was time to come back and a such good felling lingered on that it is very likely we are gooing to repeat the recipe: wine, good food, fun, laughs, English practice and more.
It is a good blend, isn't it?
Cheers,
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| Quorum tasting at Lidio Carraro Winery with Patricia Carraro |
  |
Almaúnica Nature |
We left Porto Alegre very early on a Saturday morning towards the mountains, where Vale dos Vinhedos is located. Vale dos Vinhedos is the only
region in Brazil to have a D.O. (Designation of Origin) for its wines and where some of the most important Brazilian wineries are located.
The weather forecast wasn't the best one for that day, but, as usual, it was wrong! We had a beautiful and sunny day.
Our first visit was to Lídio Carraro, one of the most successful exporters of Brazilian wines.
It is a family run business and so was our tour!
We were welcomed by the mother Isabel Carraro who gave us a brief in Portuguese of what we would be explained in English by Patricia Carraro - the Marketing Manager.
We had some introduction to the winery and its production and after tasted some very balanced, elegant and tasty wines: Dádivas Chardonnay, Dádivas Pinot Noir, Agnus Cabernet Sauvigon, Elos e Quorum - an excellent blend of four varieties and their best grapes.
The group did well, usdertanding almost all the explanation, however, as wine was a new subject to almost all, I helped translating from the English explanation to a Portuguese one.
It was noon when we headed to our lunch in a Italian style local restaurant Mamma Gema, which has an "all you can eat" service.
It was a delicious and enjoynable time.
We finished our tour visiting a young winery with a very new aproach to wine - for this region at least.
 |
| Wine-making explained from the beginning to end, by Magda Brandelli Zandoná |
 |
| Two ways of making wine |
I have previously tasted many of their products, so I chose something new to me: Almaúnica Nature - a tradicional method sparkling wine that stayed 26 months on its lees and had 20% of it aged in new French oak barrics.
It was time to come back and a such good felling lingered on that it is very likely we are gooing to repeat the recipe: wine, good food, fun, laughs, English practice and more.
It is a good blend, isn't it?
Cheers,
