Fazenda Mae de Ouro

Fazenda Mae de Ouro means "The Mother of Gold Farm" in English. Surrounded by rolling hills, their fields are a sea of tall green sugarcane, irrigated by water from the lake and the tropical rains. As the sun sets the fields look as if they are made of gold, giving them their name. Mae De Ouro is a family farm and distillery founded with a dedication to four pillars: ecology, viability, responsibility and heritage. Located in the heart of the most celebrated cachaca producing state in Brazil, Mãe De Ouro lies near the sleepy town of São José da Barra where fewer than six thousand residents live.

The commitment to sustainability is apparent at every step of production: Today in Brazil, millions of acres of sugar cane are burned each year. While it is more labor intensive to harvest unburned sugarcane, they have chosen not to burn their crops or use machines. Burning sugar cane pollutes the environment and also destroys the natural yeasts that give their cachaça its unique flavor. By hand selecting each plant and taking only what they need, they can harvest their crops at the peak of the season when the cane is the sweetest possible.

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