When he arrived in Italy in 2010, at the age of 25, Pernambuco midfielder Anderson Hernanes de Carvalho Viana Lima was already a collector of titles in football. Two-time Brazilian champion for São Paulo (2007 and 2008), he had been elected the best player in the competition and named by the British newspaper The Times as the most promising in the world in 2009. Sold by the São Paulo tricolor to Lazio, from Rome, for 13.5 million euros, he knew a lot about football, but no wine. It was the move to the Italian capital that opened his mind to the drink so present in the Bible – whose recurring quotes from Hernanes in interviews generated the nickname The Prophet, given by then sports reporter Thiago Leifert. “I usually say that wine was for me like an apple for Isaac Newton,” the athlete told DINHEIRO. “It was trying to understand why the apple fell that he developed all those ingenious theories. When I understood that wine is a natural process of fermentation of the grape, my mind opened. I started wanting to discover and experiment more and more,” he said.
In just a few years, Hernanes went from “ignorance” in wines — and also in gastronomy, as he himself recognizes — to the status of a grape producer and owner of a wine tourism enterprise: Ca’ del Prophet (House of the Prophet), in Montaldo Scarampi, in the Asti region of Piedmont. There are 4.5 hectares of vineyards planted with native Barbera, Grignolino and Brachetto grapes, in addition to an inn with just five suites and a restaurant. In charge of the cookware is Italian chef Christian Milone, who made a career as a professional cyclist and already had a star in the coveted Michelin Guide when he took over the kitchen at Ca’ del Prophet. “In Italy there is a culture of food, an appreciation of seasonal ingredients, of preparation techniques,” said Hernanes. “I approached this world out of curiosity. As of 2011, I started taking courses, tastings, visiting wineries”. That’s how, according to him, his first discoveries emerged: the subtleties that make the difference from one region to another, the typicality of a particular grape. Until he fell in love with a place and began to dream of his own canteen, with a beautiful garden, vineyards and a place to host visitors. “I wanted to be in the wine industry”.
What started as a passion soon turned into an investment. At 36 years old and on leave from Sport Club do Recife, for which he played in the last season of the Brazilian Championship (relegated, the team will play in the Série B of the Brasileirão in 2022), the ambidextrous Hernanes does not intend to play ball for much longer. “As a player, I didn’t just look for titles. I wanted to entertain people in the stands, give the audience emotion with my dribbles and goals. That’s what I look for with wine and with the restaurant,” he said. “At Ca’ del Prophet I am putting the person in front of the goal, and the goal is one of the most incredible emotions one can experience in life. The goal is magical. That’s what I want to offer.” It is not by chance that Hernanes chose a phrase from the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine for the opening page of the website that presents his venture: “Experience is the only prophecy of the wise”.
With modern architecture, the resort is on top of a hill and has panoramic views of the vineyards. Of the five accommodations, four were named after evangelists: Luke, Mark, Matthew and John (all in Italian spelling). The fifth honors Ezekiel, a priest and prophet who lived between 622 and 570 BC and is still revered today by the three monotheistic religions. His name is translated as “The strength of God” or “God strengthens”. Ephraim wine was also inspired by the scriptures, the most sophisticated of the four that carry the Ca’ del Prophet brand. In the Bible, Ephraim is one of Joseph’s sons. According to Hernanes, when he named his son, Joseph said: “God blessed me in the land of my suffering”. Something similar happened in the player’s life. “I had just arrived at Juventus, coming from Inter, and my adaptation was a little difficult due to the rivalry between the fans”, he said. “Wine is like a son and I chose that name because I understood that God would bless me in the land where I faced difficult times.” At Juventus, Hernanes ended the 2015–16 season with Serie A and Coppa Italia titles.
GREEK LETTER The wine analogy with the son is not limited to Ephraim. “I want each wine to represent me. They are my story, they bear my signature”, said Hernanes. Starting with the label. Its four wines are stamped with the Greek letter Pi, in a stylized way. “My childhood nickname was Pi. I really like mathematics, exact, precise things. And wine, despite being a product of nature, requires incredible precision,” he said. In addition to representing the “science of wine”, the Greek letter on the labels brings other elements alluding to the athlete’s history. One of Pi’s “legs” is an upside-down player holding a ball. “When I scored a goal, I did a somersault,” he said. Up close, the ball he holds is the center circle of the Brazilian flag. On the other “leg”, a vine is raised on a staff, the symbol of the prophets.
Although he admits that his oenological knowledge is only empirical, Hernanes dedicated himself to every detail from the beginning of the project. When he acquired the property, he recommended that existing vineyards not receive any chemical pesticides or herbicides. “It is my house and there we will receive people. It needs to be a pure, clean environment,” he said. The first vintage was vinified by Paolo Coppo, known in Piedmont as “the king of the Barbera grape”. A Juventus fan, Coppo became friends with the player and, exceptionally, agreed to make the wine for the idol. “I did a lot of tests to find out what the grapes could give me. I knew what I wanted: a wine that I liked,” said the Prophet. It is no exaggeration to say that Hernanes scored four goals in net form.
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