Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Brazil produces very little good wine, but one or two winemakers show that its possible. Tormentas is the brainchild of Marco Danielle, a former professional photographer who caught the winemaking bug while living in Paris in the late 1990s. With no vineyards of his own, he has to purchase, so is at the mercy of what he can get. Grapes are hand picked but not organic, and he has to innoculate the must. The first two wines show his current direction, towards minimal SO2 and low intervention, and were the most satisfying. The latter two are from a time when he used (or had to use) a fraction of super mature grapes, so they taste more international.
2009 Tormentas Ros Garagem (Encruzilhada do Sul) Pinot Noir
270 bottles made. No oak. Odd but pleasing mlange of smoked meat, cooked pasta, cloves and papaya. Hint of CO2, good acidity, savory, with satisfying finish. Lovely.
2009 Tormentas Fulvia Garagem (Encruzilhada do Sul) Pinot Noir 12.14%
990 bottles made. 30% aged in barriques. Attractive aromas of cherry/raspberry, leather and a touch of funk. Slightly more sweet than acid, but balanced by light final bitterness. Satisfying body, pleasantly savory. Very nice, tastes like an original expression.
2005 Tormentas Minimus Anima 13.8%
70% late harvest cabernet sauvignon (2005) e 30% Alicante Bouschet (2006). Nose shows dense mix of syrupy plums and berries with odd but appealing stewed beets and carrots. Unctuous texture, but mouth-puckering acidity. Fruit tastes slightly charred, and the sweetness borders on treacle, but the package remains classy. When it first came out, this wine got the winemaker much needed attention in Brazil, but today tastes a little dated in terms of his direction towards increasing non-intervention and lower ripeness levels. Still, an attractive wine in its style.
2006 Tormentas (Encruzilhada do Sul) 14.8%
Late harvest Pinot Noir (45%), Tannat (25%), Merlot (25%), Alicante Bouschet (5%). 1.070 bottles made. The top wine from Tormentas in 2006. Kirsch, sweat, roses and eucalyptus. Slight jamminess, excellent body, excellent acid sweet balance, lively tannins, savory finish. Excellent and complete, though today I doubt the winemaker would use late harvest grapes.
For lack of a decent Brazilian late harvest wine, we ended with an indecent 2005 Baumard Quarts de Chaume, made with sinful, morally reprehensible, ethically reprimandable cryoextraction. It remained devastatingly treacly, even after eight hours in a decanter (I was hoping oxygen might take some of the sweet edge away, but no), so I served it almost frozen, closer to a smoothie. Some of the more neophyte dinner participants found it lovely, like a divine ambrosia, so ya never know when one persons yuck will be anothers delight.
2009 Tormentas Ros Garagem (Encruzilhada do Sul) Pinot Noir
270 bottles made. No oak. Odd but pleasing mlange of smoked meat, cooked pasta, cloves and papaya. Hint of CO2, good acidity, savory, with satisfying finish. Lovely.
2009 Tormentas Fulvia Garagem (Encruzilhada do Sul) Pinot Noir 12.14%
990 bottles made. 30% aged in barriques. Attractive aromas of cherry/raspberry, leather and a touch of funk. Slightly more sweet than acid, but balanced by light final bitterness. Satisfying body, pleasantly savory. Very nice, tastes like an original expression.
2005 Tormentas Minimus Anima 13.8%
70% late harvest cabernet sauvignon (2005) e 30% Alicante Bouschet (2006). Nose shows dense mix of syrupy plums and berries with odd but appealing stewed beets and carrots. Unctuous texture, but mouth-puckering acidity. Fruit tastes slightly charred, and the sweetness borders on treacle, but the package remains classy. When it first came out, this wine got the winemaker much needed attention in Brazil, but today tastes a little dated in terms of his direction towards increasing non-intervention and lower ripeness levels. Still, an attractive wine in its style.
2006 Tormentas (Encruzilhada do Sul) 14.8%
Late harvest Pinot Noir (45%), Tannat (25%), Merlot (25%), Alicante Bouschet (5%). 1.070 bottles made. The top wine from Tormentas in 2006. Kirsch, sweat, roses and eucalyptus. Slight jamminess, excellent body, excellent acid sweet balance, lively tannins, savory finish. Excellent and complete, though today I doubt the winemaker would use late harvest grapes.
For lack of a decent Brazilian late harvest wine, we ended with an indecent 2005 Baumard Quarts de Chaume, made with sinful, morally reprehensible, ethically reprimandable cryoextraction. It remained devastatingly treacly, even after eight hours in a decanter (I was hoping oxygen might take some of the sweet edge away, but no), so I served it almost frozen, closer to a smoothie. Some of the more neophyte dinner participants found it lovely, like a divine ambrosia, so ya never know when one persons yuck will be anothers delight.