It was in one of the bars in Goethe Street in Porto Alegre (or Göcs as the Brazilian taxi driver said it) that I came across with the Aurora wines, pretty decent Cabernet Sauvignon as I said to myself I made a mental note why not see it for myself if I go to Bento Goncalves.

The name actually comes from one of the girls who came often out to the harvesters and brought food. As Andreas my guide (in charge with wine making) was saying she is around 90 years old but still comes to the winery and drinks her Aurora wine on a regular basis. It the biggest winery in Brazil, in a 60 km radius more then 1100 families produce 50 million kg grapes annually.
The co-op has around 80 varieties but 70% of them are non vinifera varieties but rather hybrid, Americans and the common training system is the pergola (90%). At the American varieties can go up to a stunning 30-40 tones /ha while the vitis vinifera comes at a modest 8-10 tones / ha average yield, still not that low, but much lower compared to the American varieties.

40.000 kg of grapes per hectar (ha), hard to imagine, while I was told in Peru table quality for instance they do around 15.000 kg /ha and Mr. Payet for its pisco does around 11.000 kg/ ha. I was soon to taste something with such a massive yield. As I was wondering at the alcohol levels at the lower range wines (mostly under 11% ABV) Andreas was explaining to me despite the good weather conditions this happens if you harvest with such a massive yield, the finishing wine gets diluted, additionally not even chaptalization will increase the alcohol levels too much. Incredible, I said to him. Yield, good natural conditions versus concentration, alcohol. I don´t really know how many wine they sell under different labels but it must be an awful lot. Andreas was telling me from a successful brand, the Marcus James, which is still sold but only in Brazil. It was made for the American market an easy to appreciate red wine from the Aurora cellars. But when the winery could not deliver as much wine as the American wished, they dropped it and turned to another wine country, hence Marcus James is still running in the States but not from Brazil anymore. I guess origin is not always as important as the brand, particularly if we talk about huge quantity.

I got so much hooked on this grape question, I had to ask the price as well. Andreas told me the price what grower get is around 50 Brazilian cents / kg for American varieties and around 1-1,2 Reals /kg for Vitis Vinifera varieties. 1 USD is around 2 Reals (for accurate FX rates check: www.xe.com). A new winery is just in progress to be built for the quality wine production, then beside the myriad of America, hybrid varieties there is plenty of quality grape variety from which wine can be made. They have Carmenére, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Pinotage, Tannat, Ancellotta (for colour) and other reds, and under whites there is Moscatel, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Riesling Italico, Chardonnay and many others.

In the cellar system they have stainless steel, concrete cement epoxy vats, araucaria casks and Brazilian wood so called grapia this was is used only for storage but its very common. The oak barrels are a mix of French and American wood and can be used up to 7-8 times. Ready wine gets to stored in the stainless steel tanks before bottling, the winery has 70 million litres of storage capacity and they made around 38 million litres of wine last year, the total vineyard surface is around 3200 ha.

Beside the earlier mentioned pergola training system the quality grapes get to be trained vertical or in lyre shaped. Andreas was telling me about the Carmenére, well back in Chile people thoughts its Merlot before they realized it’s a different variety after all. Something similar happened in Brazil as well, people thought its Cabernet Sauvignon, some growers said: “well this is our Cabernet Sauvignon pointing to the real one and this is our harder Cabernet Sauvignon pointing at the Carmenére.” Mistela in form of (fermentation stopped by adding alcohol to it) unfermented grape juice is used for some wines.

Well, Brazil and sparkling wine this is quite something special. While Bento Goncalves could be probably called the capital for still wine production, then Garibaldi just a few km south could be called the sparkling capital of Brazil. Aurora does a very small amount in the traditional method (15ha yet increasing) riddling by hand Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is used for it yet the majority of the sparkling wine is made according to the Charmant method. Andreas was telling me very excited about the new acquisition around Pinto Bandera some of the highest plantings, on 800 m this could be very promising. The Brut sparkling wine can have up to 15 g/l residual sugar (RS) while semi sec 40 g/l RS added Andreas to it. There are very good conditions for sparkling wine making and its mainly the temperature, cold night while humidity is fairly high during January, sparkling wine is clearly on the rise. Yet I have to point out, while this is certainly true and consumers appreciate the bubbles but do they appreciate Brazilian fizz? During my stay in Brazil, around three weeks, visiting a handful of clubs and party location (e.g. discos, pool parties, clubs…) in different cities I had approve bubbles yes, but mainly foreign sparkling wine (e.g. Champagne and Prosecco, Lambrusco) were more common then domestic sparkling wines, most of the time they were not even on the “list”. Despite being competitive at least with basic fizz, that’s for sure.

The average night time temperature is around 15°C while this doubles during day time to 30°C. The average sugar level measured in Baumé is around 15° and if yield would not be controlled it could rise easily even in vineyards meant for quality wine, rainfall is fairly high during the summer, no need for irrigation and plenty of underground water helps out if it has to be done. Pinot Noir and early varieties are harvested round January while the later ones like Cabernet Sauvignon comes around end of March, the harvest is usually quite early compared to other South American countries as spring is hot.

The white wines usually ferment around 12-20°C while the reds to they alcoholic fermentation around 28°C, most of the sweet wine is made by chilling, arresting fermentation that residual sugar remains and alcohol remains therefore usually also a bit lower.
Aurora has a huge underground pipe system 3,5 km for the transportation of the wine from different departments, the cellar system is huge and goes over a couple of streets at least, several units build in with a big network underneath the road. You go in on one side and sort of come up a totally different street later.
Andreas was telling me the Luis Scolari the former Brazil World Cup coach actually comes from this area and before the World Cup back in 2002 (?) he came and visited the Aurora Winery prayed to one of the holy statues in the winery for luck, success…And after winning the World Cup he came back and repeated it.

Aurora one of the biggest wineries in the whole of South America and despite having so many odd varieties and wines which I would not even wish for my enemies they do a pretty good job to make out of the vitis vinifera grapes good quality wines. I wish them well on the mission to make Brazilian sparkling wine famous not only in Brazil but outside as well. A huge line up requires is a great task when it comes to co-ordination and they´re doing a pretty good job. Worth a visit, especially to try some strange varieties (yes, the odd ones) out and the “premium” line as well, just to appreciate the difference.

Cooperativa Vinicola Aurora Ltda.
www.vinicolaaurora.com.br

Tasted wines
13/04/09

Aurora Reserva Chardonnay 2007
Deep straw yellow colour, 3 months oak aging partly malo-lactic fermentation in oak. Yet it feels there is plenty of wood in the game. Coconut, vanilla, bounty beach feeling with a ripe tropical line up on the nose.
Dry, ripe tropical fruit, nice acidity good juicy fruit with a lemon drive, elegant finish.

Pequenas Partidas Carmenere 2006
12000 bottles made only in small lots and parcels. Good ruby colour some vinyl and tar on the nose some kind of Pinotage like character (heat stress?!) bacon very interesting in a way. Mushroom, “like a hard Cabernet” less fruit more vegetal nevertheless ripe. Dry, good acidity, more pleasant fruit on the palate, correct finish.

Millésime Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (13% vol)
Good deep colour, some of the best selection. Long contact with yeast for 18 months, oak a mix of old and new (1 year old and mix of 4-5 years too). Clean black fruit, cassis, good acidity, lovely grip of tannins, ripe fruit and a balanced picture with the oak. Good finish.

Aurora Pinot Noir (100%) Brut Method Charmant, Sierra Gaucha NV
Straw yellow colour, good mousse and fairly small bubbles. Moderate on the nose, dry, good fruit expression, silky-good fizz. Medium crisp, finishing off with a green/yellow apple.

Country Wine (9%)
Sabello, Concord, Sale grapes, the names comes from a love & romantic TV novella.
Ruby colour, cane sugar added prior bottling, strawberry, sort of sweet nose very simple, distinctive. Very juicy on the palate and sweet at the same time, low alcohol with around 90 g/l residual sugar 5,5 g/l acidity and the mentioned 9% ABV certainly a very unbalanced wine, work of wild yeast and the American grapes, natural wine :“making philosophy just let it happen”.

Casa de Bento 100%
Andreas showed me the more expensive version of the above one, this however does not have alcohol whatsoever. It’s a grape juice, simple and good. Deep colour, no alcohol, fine grape, fruit nose. Double the price of the previous (despite no alcohol). Why? The need of enzymes and pasteurization, more work is done with the beverage. Very refreshing and pure, grape juice.

Tags: Aurora

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