2022 Azores Wine Company Verdelho O Original
Region: Pico Island, Azores Islands, Portugal
Grape: Verdelho O Original
Culinary Suggestions: Oysters, Grilled Fish, Viet/Thai Salads, Fresh Seafood
Vineyard Practice: Sustainable
About
The Winery is located on the north coast of the island, near Cais do Mourato, in the middle of the Vineyard Landscape of Pico Island – World Heritage in Portugal.
The history of the Azores Wine Company began with a project to recover the Terrantez do Pico variety in 2010, by winemaker António Maçanita and culminates with the foundation of the company on 3 April 2014, together with Filipe Rocha, Paulo Machado.
The three partners of Azores Wine Company are deeply connected to the Azores and inevitably crossed paths because they share two great passions: wine and gastronomy, to which they dedicate a large part of their lives.
The production of Pico wines, the recovery of an endangered grape variety, the promotion of wines, gastronomy and tourism in the Azores are some of the projects they are involved in.
Winemaker António Maçanita has a long relationship with the Azores, due to a childhood of holidays spent on São Miguel and a failed attempt to plant a vineyard in 2000, when he was only 20 years old.
In 2010, four years before the foundation of the Azores Wine Company, nonconformist and wanting to do something different, he recovered an indigenous Azores grape variety that was practically lost in the archipelago, the Terrantez do Pico, in a joint project with the Agricultural Development Services of São Miguel. The recovery of the Terrantez do Pico variety is at the origin of the Azores Wine Company's history, being the birthplace of its philosophy: to recover indigenous grape varieties from the Azores and return them to the world.
Currently, the recovery of the Azores' indigenous grape varieties, located mostly on Pico Island, make up the typical profile of Azores wines.
Completely unique, the almost extinct Terrantez do Pico variety reveals itself with surprising freshness, minerality and salinity. The small supply of this wine full of identity and authenticity has travelled to several countries and is now available in some of the best wine shops and top restaurants. The Azores and its wines have made a big entrance!
This work was continued in 2013 by joint project between Fitapreta Vinhos and Insula Vinus, shortly before the creation of the Azores Wine Company. It focuses on the production of an Azores wine based on another grape variety native to the Region: Arinto dos Açores.
Working together, with their friendship and common wish to give back to the Azores, and in particular to Pico Island the notoriety of other times, challenges them to create a new Azores wines project, and the Azores Wine Company History began.
In 2014, the Azores Wine Company produced around 10,000 bottles.
The white Arinto dos Açores and Verdelho O Original monovariety from the Rare Grapes Collection, represented more than half of production. However, the Azores Wine Company also innovated with its Volcanic Series of red and rosé Azores wines.
On the island of Pico, the vines grow in extreme conditions, very close to the sea and planted in the crevices of the bed rock, in volcanic soil, defying the very definition of soil.
Pico's vineyards are unusually close to the sea, between 50 and 300 metres; so close that the sea sprays the vineyards with salt. Viticulture on Pico Island is as a battle between the sea and the Pico Mountain. In the Azores Wine Company's vineyards, the salt water seeps underground and mixes with the fresh rainwater in a brackish combination that the vines’ roots drink from.
The influence of the 2351-metre high Pico mountain is imense. The clouds that usually gather around them lead people to plant the vines so close to the sea that they used to say: the vines are "where you hear the crab sing".
The man-made dry-stone “currais” are endless walls of volcanic stone, which seek to protect the vines from wind and sea salt, and at the same time create a microclimate for the hottest vines. They were built some 500 years ago, and classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004. The Azores Wine Company owns one of the most famous “curral” locations on Pico Island, Lajido da Criação Velha.
An expanse of vineyards planted in a volcanic field with a traditional Azores winemaking architecture that is preserved and restored every year.
The Azores Wine Company project is also a tribute to History and to the heroes who shaped the impressive Pico Island Vineyards Landscape, building thousands of dry-stone walls called “currais” as far as the eye can see, in which the "impossible" was done, and which today is one of the 14 wine regions classified by UNESCO as World Heritage.
This is the focus of the Azores Wine Company, unique Azores wines, full of identity, pure, fresh, challenging and with a touch of salt... just as life should be! - Winery Website
5733 bottles produced
12% alcohol
Serve 10-12 degrees celsius
Tasting Notes
Mineral and salty attack, it has the grape varietals and Azorean Terroir matrix, but with a more intense aroma, adding to the grapefruit notes touches of tropical fruit with acidity like passion fruit and guava. It’s not the Verdelho- -Gouveio, it’s not the Verdelho-Verdejo, it is the Verdelho-Verdelho, the Original. - Winery Website
It offers some of the juicy tropical flavours of the grape variety, but it’s also distinctly saline with some pink grapefruity attack through a glossy and creamy texture. Texture is slightly powdery and the finish is juicy, but has a burst of acidity and a whole load of that sea spray/salty digestive drink thing, also closes somewhat stony. Terrific. Recommended.
94 points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front February 2024
Drink: 2024 - 2029+