More Casablanca Wine | Adding Extra Options…
This page covers extra Casablanca wine tour options, new and interesting winery visits that we are finding as we explore. Many are very up-close-and-personal with winery owners and winemakers themselves, often in quirky places with unusual wines. In Covid times our investigation trips are proving to be a challenge but we have escaped lockdown a couple of times recently and can now boast the wineries below in our portfolio.
The wine experiences below can be blended into a single or multi-day wine tour to Casablanca. Our visits always offer contrasts and you will nearly always meet the owners or the people who make the wine in question. Talk to us about how we can fit these into your schedule:
RE Winery
Malka had done a little research on this winery before we arrived, I hadn’t, other than drinking the wine of course! So I didn’t really know what to expect other than the reputation RE has for some unusual blends and low intervention creations. When you walk downstairs and start to explore the cellar there are some real treats for wine enthusiasts.
The first things you come across are the amphorae which, like Georgian qvevri, are buried in the ground. But unlike Georgia only to around one-third of their depth as you can see in the top left photo above. The amphorae at RE are set at a height that makes working them easier than with their Georgian counterparts and gives them better thermal inertia, so they get the job done in almost the same way as in the Caucasus. As you walk further you see an array of oak, an impressive number of styles and sizes are on show.
One of the tasting areas among a plethora of fermenting and storage vessels at RE in Casablanca
The motto of this winery is REborn | REdiscover | REcreate….see what they did there? With the financial outlay that successful wine families can afford, investment and innovation have been made in historic vinification methods, rustic grape varieties, and unusual blends. The centerpieces of a tour of RE are the huge ceramic Tinajas that had the rest of the winery built around them. When you see these giants stretching through the upper floor you can see why they couldn’t have been an afterthought. This winery is very picky, if the winemaker is not happy with his grapes, they just don’t produce a vintage at that time. They are into unusual blends too, Syranoir, Cabergnan, and Pinotel to name just three. Not only do you have the wine to enjoy here, but also balsamic vinegar and liqueurs. I wont tell you too much more, there are plenty of things to see and taste here, you will have to visit to find out more!
Attilio y Mochi
This winery is a slightly different proposition historically and investment-wise to that of RE and is a superb visit for quality wine and the warmth of the owner’s reception. Marcos and Angela are Brazilians who moved to Chile in 2011 to start this winery. Little by little, the AM winery is growing but it is still very much a boutique operation, with lots of the production facility housed inside shipping containers. We have seen this container use at various wineries in different countries and it works well for a number of reasons that Angela can regale you with.
We visited before tourists were allowed back, hence social distancing or masks
At Attilio and Mochi, you will get a close-up view of how they do things, you will walk the vineyards which are surrounding their winery and home. If you would like to learn specific details of how viticulture is done in Casablanca then ask away, Angela is very happy to share her experiences. By the time you come in 2021, they will have planted on the hill to the side, so there will be more varieties to choose from.
Angela and Marcos are slowly increasing their range of wines, more and more will come from their small estate, especially with the newly planted acreage. The presentation of some of the bottles is eye-catching, with different shapes and sizes, some with a gift tag type label, or no capsule at all perhaps. They produce an amber wine from Viognier and Roussanne, with a few days of skin contact, some time spent resting on the lees, and then some oak. The resulting wine has a lovely color. They have also crafted a Port-style wine which we have not had the chance to try yet, it’s on the list!
