Novo Fogo Cachaça

The folk at Novo Fogo are committed to small batch production with minimal processing and the use of traditional methods, including human hands over machines.

Novo Fogo cultivate their sugarcane estate organically and hand-harvest with machetes rather than by machine. To ensure freshness, the juice is extracted by crushing the cane within hours of its being harvested. Unlike others, they do not burn the fields prior to harvesting to help remove unwanted foliage due to concerns on how scorching affects the flavour of the cane. Neither do they burn after harvesting due to the detrimental environmental impact of this practice.

The sugarcane juice is fermented with wild yeast carried on the cane and the immediate environment and takes place within 24 hours in temperature-controlled vats to product sugar cane wine.

The cane wine is single distilled in a copper pot still with each 1,200 litres batch of wine yielding just 130 litres of heart distillate.

To help preserve flavour and mouthfeel, Novo Fogo do not chill-filter their cachaça prior to bottling.

Working the sugarcane fields

The folk who work in Novo Fogo's cane fields work hard in rainforest humidity and high temperatures cultivating and harvesting the cane by hand – from tilling the fields to planting and cutting the cane. Farming is year-round work.

Novo Fogo are committed to their wellbeing and ensure they take regular breaks, stay hydrated and eat well with free meals provided. They rotate between working in the field and inside the distillery and when they work on the bottling line they get to leave their mark with their initials on the paper strip at the bottom of each bottle they fill.