Our Team
One team, many voices
People make projects.
Behind Casa Clara, there's a united team, driven by enthusiasm and talent. A team where women play an important role, both by designing the company's strategy and by taking part in the company's daily activities. In all aspects of the company, from management to enology, from marketing to viticulture, the laboratory and the winery, and the land where our grapes come from, women create, transform, imagine and implement, making social and sustainability practices part of the company's daily life.
When building our team, we wanted to reinforce our alignment with the UN's sustainable development goals, by promoting gender equality and privileging the hiring of local workers. This attitude involves all our employees, who every day make these sustainable practices real, so that more than just a goal, sustainability is a reality, experienced daily. Moreover, when hiring external consultants, we've adopted the same gender and social sustainability philosophy, in line with the company's sustainability certification and the progressive migration to organic production and renewable energy systems.
The Producers
Wine runs in the family.
In the management of the company, the founders Carlos and Clara Roque do Vale, together with their daughter, Mariana Roque do Vale, combine the experience and know-how of a whole trajectory in the world of wines, with creativity and innovation.
In winemaking, we have a female team
Knowledge, sensitivity, and precision.
From the grapes of Herdade da Capela, our oenologist Alexandra Mendes creates most of our wines, adding multiple layers of knowledge, sensitivity, and precision. Alexandra Mendes has a degree from Escola Superior
Agrária de Santarém, with a specialization in Food Engineering / Wine and has a postgraduate degree in Marketing
Management from the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão de Lisboa. As a winemaker and consultant, she has a long, accomplished career in the world of wine in Portugal, working closely with producers, wine companies and cooperatives, and is the current president of the Portuguese Association of Oenology and Viticulture.
A new generation
Creativity, focus, and brilliance.
At Quinta de D. Maria, Joana Pinhão, representing the most inspired new generation of Portuguese oenologists and bringing in her extensive international experience with some of the greatest world references in the world of wine, brings her creativity, focus, and brilliance to Ermo wines.
Joana Pinhão will take ERMO further, by bringing the best of the new blood of national oenology to the project.
viticulture
Accumulated knowledge.
In the vineyards, Eng. Jorgete Banza, who has been with Carlos and Clara Roque do Vale throughout their journey in the world of wines, is supervising viticulture, and her accumulated knowledge results in the best grapes that will one day give great wines.
João Torres uses his extensive experience and in-depth knowledge to obtain the best grapes, the raw material of our wines, and the foundation of a unique offering that ends in an oenology that is also one of precision and glimmer.
Marketing and Sales
A solid team.
Denys Krupka and Luís California, our resident salespeople, form a solid commercial team that takes our wines to the four corners of the world. They are the messengers of our wines, and often the face, and the very first impression of Casa Clara. It is up to them to communicate what we do best.
in the fields
At the rhythm of nature.
On the ground, José Cavaco, at Herdade da Capela, and Domingos Janeiro, at Quinta de D. Maria, look over the estates, witnessing the changes in the tempo of the place where everything starts, at the rhythm of nature.
"Like the Chapel that gives this land its name, this wine is full of history, character, and beauty. It brings back a memory while announcing a new kind of boldness. It's this rare inspiration, made of knowledge and surprise that I look for in each new wine."
