Almadén Winery

The story

First harvest by machine

In 2011, two harvests after Miolo Wine Group took ownership of Almadén, the company introduced mechanical harvesting to the Campanha estate, the first time the technique had been used on a Brazilian wine property. The decision was partly a matter of scale: 450 producing hectares cannot be picked by hand without losing speed in a warm harvest window. But mechanical harvesting also enabled night picking, moving fruit through the cooler hours so freshly cut grapes arrived at the cellar without exposure to midday heat. The estate has harvested mechanically and, where conditions allow, at night, every vintage since.

From the atlas

Almadén Winery

A large-scale estate in Rio Grande do Sul's Campanha region, where 450 producing hectares and a Chenin Blanc sparkling wine made by the Charmat method connect Brazilian wine to international markets.

At A Glance

The Producer

Almadén Winery occupies a large estate on the border town of Santana do Livramento, in the Campanha region of far southern Brazil. The estate spans 600 hectares, with 450 in active production and an annual output of around 4 million liters. Since its acquisition by Miolo Wine Group in 2009, Almadén has operated as part of one of Brazil's most substantial wine companies, with the Campanha vineyards serving the domestic range and the Cuvée No 7 sparkling wine drawing Chenin Blanc from the Vale do São Francisco in Brazil's northeast.

The Almadén name predates the Brazilian operation by more than a century: it originated in California in 1852 before the Brazilian winery was established in Santana do Livramento in 1973. The California and Brazil operations are distinct; Miolo Group owns the Brazilian estate.

Place

Santana do Livramento sits on Brazil's southern border with Uruguay, in the Campanha region of Rio Grande do Sul. Campanha is a grassland plateau, markedly flatter and drier than the Serra Gaúcha hills that account for most of Brazil's wine production. The latitude and open landscape give the vineyards long hours of sun with temperature drops at night, conditions that favor grape ripening in a climate where the growing season is warm but rarely extreme.

Cuvée No 7 draws its Chenin Blanc from a different geography entirely: Vale do São Francisco, in the northeastern interior of Brazil. The northeast is a semi-arid region close to the equator, where producers harvest grapes twice a year by manipulating the vine's cycle through irrigation, yielding a tropical, ripe fruit profile quite distinct from what the southern Campanha vineyards produce.

Soil And Site

The Campanha estate sits on terrain typical of the southern grassland zone: well-drained soils over a base of sedimentary rock, with sandy and loamy textures that suit viticulture in a region where waterlogging is less of a concern than in Brazil's wetter coastal states. The flat topography means there is little slope-driven drainage variation across the 450 producing hectares; the estate works at scale across relatively uniform ground.

Vale do São Francisco, where the Chenin Blanc for Cuvée No 7 originates, sits in a river valley irrigated by the São Francisco River at a low altitude close to the equator. Irrigation and controlled harvest timing, rather than seasonal cold, determine ripeness there.

Story

When Miolo Wine Group bought Almadén from Pernod Ricard in 2009, it took on one of southern Brazil's largest vineyard holdings: 600 hectares in Campanha, with the infrastructure and capacity for millions of liters of annual production. Miolo, a family wine company based in the Serra Gaúcha, had been building its portfolio across Brazilian wine regions, and Almadén added scale and a Campanha address that complemented its existing operations.

Two years after the acquisition, in 2011, Miolo introduced mechanical harvesting at the Almadén estate, a first for Brazil. Across 450 producing hectares, hand-picking at that scale is logistically demanding; mechanical harvesting let the estate bring in fruit more efficiently and, crucially, at night, when cooler temperatures reduce oxidation in freshly cut grapes. Night harvesting is now a standard argument for mechanical methods in warm-climate viticulture: the fruit reaches the winery in better condition than day-picked grapes exposed to midday heat.

Vineyards And Cellar

The estate covers 600 hectares in Campanha, with 450 hectares producing approximately 4 million liters per year. Mechanical harvesting, introduced in 2011, is used across the estate's large-scale operation. The Campanha vineyards supply the domestic range of still and sparkling wines.

Cuvée No 7 Brut Blanc de Blancs is made from 100% Chenin Blanc sourced from Vale do São Francisco, using the Charmat method: secondary fermentation takes place in pressurized stainless steel tanks rather than individual bottles. After fermentation, the wine rests on its lees for 40 days before filtration, sweetness adjustment, and bottling under pressure at low temperature. The Charmat method produces a lighter, fresher mousse than traditional bottle fermentation, and the relatively brief lees contact preserves the wine's fruit-forward character.

Wines

Almadén produces a domestic range from its Campanha vineyards covering still and sparkling styles at multiple price levels, including Brut, Demi-Sec, Moscatel, and Rosé sparkling wines. Cuvée No 7 Brut Blanc de Blancs stands apart from the domestic lineup: a single-varietal Chenin Blanc sparkling wine made by the Charmat method, with 40 days on lees, brut-dry dosage, and 12% alcohol. It arrives at light yellow with green hues, and shows a fruit character built around tropical and stone fruit rather than the apple-citrus profile more common in cool-climate sparkling wine. The wine is the estate's most clearly defined international offering.

In The Glass

Cuvée No 7 pours light yellow with green hues. The nose is fresh and fruity: citrus, white flowers, and a tropical fruit character that includes melon, peach, and pear, reflecting the warm-climate Chenin Blanc from Vale do São Francisco. On the palate, the mousse is fine, the acidity is bright, and the dosage keeps the finish dry. A light biscuit note from the 40 days on lees sits behind the fruit, and lime carries through to the close. The wine is youthful and built for early drinking.

A Bottle To Understand It

Cuvée No 7 Brut Blanc de Blancs is the bottle to start with. It is made from 100% Chenin Blanc by the Charmat method, with 40 days on lees and a brut-dry finish at 12% alcohol. What it shows that the domestic Campanha range does not is the profile of northeast Brazilian Chenin Blanc made as a single-varietal sparkling wine: tropical fruit upfront, fine bubbles from the tank method, bright acidity, and a dry finish with lime persisting on the close. The biscuit note from the lees is subtle but present, giving the wine a small amount of bread-like texture without shifting the fruit-first character.

Anecdote

In 2011, the year Miolo Wine Group had owned Almadén for two full harvests, the company brought in the first mechanical harvester to work a Brazilian wine estate. The scale of the Campanha vineyards made the trial a practical decision: 450 producing hectares cannot be combed by hand at the pace a warm harvest window demands. But mechanical harvesting also made something else possible. Night harvesting, running the machines through the cooler hours, keeps freshly cut fruit from sitting in the heat before it reaches the cellar. The first night harvest at Almadén ran in 2011. The estate has worked that way since.

Final Word

Almadén is a large-scale Campanha estate where 450 producing hectares support a broad domestic range, and where Cuvée No 7 draws 100% Chenin Blanc from Brazil's tropical northeast to produce a Charmat-method sparkling wine with bright acidity, fine mousse, and a fruit character shaped by the São Francisco river valley.

Sources

• https://www.almaden.com.br/
• https://brasildevinhos.com.br/almaden-meio-seculo-de-brasil/
• https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/757401/
• https://wineaffair.se/produkter/cuvee-no-7-brut-blanc-de-blancs-757401/