Brazil — Casa Almeida Barreto Red Catuai (Natural)

Tastes Like — 🍬 Nougat • 🍫 Milk Chocolate • 🍷 Winey

DETAILS

• Producer: Casa Almeida Barreto (Jorge & Gabriel)
• Region: Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Varietal: Red Catuai
• Process: Natural
• Altitude: 1,200 MASL
• Harvest: 2025
• Roast: Filter
• Size: 250g

INTRO

A third year of direct collaboration with Casa Almeida Barreto — a family estate in Minas Gerais where winemaking expertise and coffee production have converged into something genuinely distinctive. Elegant, with a syrupy body and notes of nougat, milk chocolate, and winey aromatics. A naturally processed Red Catuai that carries all the precision and intentionality of a wine producer who never forgot the coffee trees already growing on the land.

THE PRODUCER

Casa Almeida Barreto was originally purchased by Jorge and Gabriel's family with the sole intention of producing wine. When they discovered the established and well-maintained coffee trees already growing on the estate, they decided it would be a waste not to work with them — and so a coffee production story began, guided from the very first harvest by the family's deep background in enology, agronomy, and fermentation science.

That cross-disciplinary expertise is the defining characteristic of everything Casa Almeida Barreto produces. Using the stainless steel tanks and fermentation technology from their wine facilities, they have developed precisely controlled processing methods that produce vibrant, interesting flavour profiles while maintaining the consistency their partners expect. The 2025 harvest was a demanding one — an unusually warm and arid winter, a challenging blossoming season, mid-season dryness during grain-filling, and three light-to-moderate frosts between June and August. The estate's higher altitude plots fared best, their cooler, slower cycles less affected by the mid-season stress, with the resulting longer and more delicate harvest and gentler drying producing some of the most exciting lots in recent years.

THE PROCESS

The Natural process at Casa Almeida Barreto involves:

🍒 Selective picking — Red Catuai cherries harvested at peak ripeness, with slightly earlier picking experimented with this season 🛢️ Controlled fermentation — Fermentation managed using stainless steel tanks and wine-industry technology, with precise temperature and environment control ☀️ Slow natural drying — Dried whole-fruit using slower drying methods refined this season, across expanded cement patios that improved efficiency, cleanliness, and consistency

The stainless steel tank-controlled fermentation is the defining step — by applying wine-industry fermentation precision to coffee processing, Casa Almeida Barreto builds the depth, winey aromatics, and syrupy sweetness that define this lot, while the slow natural drying locks in the nougat and milk chocolate character that complete the cup.

THE CUP

An elegant, syrupy, and warmly expressive natural Red Catuai from one of Minas Gerais' most technically accomplished and cross-disciplinary specialty producers — nougat sweetness, milk chocolate warmth, and a distinctive winey aromatic quality in a round, well-structured filter coffee that rewards every sip. Three years into a partnership, and still exciting.

Flavour Notes

🍬 Nougat 🍫 Milk Chocolate 🍷 Winey