Azores

The Azores are an archipelago of nine islands and lie in the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and America. For the sake of convenience you can say that they are almost halfway between these 2 continents.

The climate is mild, humid and rapidly changing all year round: rain, wind, fog or a teasing sun behind a thin cloud. Lichens, ferns and mosses thrive excellently, and there is a lot of bright green grass to feed the cows.

The background is spectacular: active volcanoes, crater lakes, waterfalls, beaches composed of swirls of lava, the highest mountain in Portugal, Pico, and hot plains where you can literally cook your dinner

Vines are planted in rocky or poor volcanic soils. most vines still grow within traditional currais (UNESCO world heritage), small fences of stone walls, sometimes no more than two or three square meters. These walls protect against the ocean winds and they radiate heat at night.

By far the majority of the vines grown on the islands are American, planted after the phylloxera pest. They make a curious musky wine known as vinho de cheiro or "fragrant wine" - loved by islanders and island migrants in Canada and the US.

History: after the discovery of the Atlantic archipelago during the reign of King Afonso V, his uncle, Henry the Navigator, order the uprooting of vines on the island of Crete so that they could be acclimatised first to Madeira, and then to the Azores. The motive was to capture the important Greek liqueur wine market, thus taking advantage of the position of these islands and the international sailing routes of ships crossing the Atlantic. Planted in corrals to protect the vines from the wind, the vineyards flourished. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Carmelite and Franciscan monks successfully perfected their vitivinicultural techniques. In the 19th century, the level of exports had grown to 20,000 pipes and vineyards covered an area of over 2,000 hectares. Contact with the Hanseatic League, exports via their own “feitoria” (factory) to Brazil, not to mention business with England and Russia, where Pico wine was considered to be the wine of Tsars, revealed outstanding commercial organisation. Starting in 1852, the American Plagues destroyed viticulture.

The market for regional consumption and passing trade was recovered by the American hybrid vines until a few years ago. When initial rebuilding of viticulture and viniculture took place, however, heliothermal properties were obviously not properly taken into account when selecting new grapevine varieties which had to adapt to different growing conditions; neither was the necessity to replace the corrals with other types of windbreaks understood. Thus, lamentably, the restructuring did not result in the desired outcome. While interesting wines such as Biscoitos and Graciosa were produced, yields were lower. Nevertheless, the Cooperativa de Pico (“Pico Cooperative”) labels and the innovative wines of the Curral de Atlantis winery have shown that there may well be a future for the famous wines of the Azores. Others involved in viticulture take advantage of subsidies granted to maintain traditional viticulture in corrals, although this is not economically sustainable, or they are replanting the Jacquez or Cunningham hybrids.

A region to keep an eye on!

Display

Easy

Detailed

Photo only

List

List without photos

Sort

Name

Date

Price Ascending

Price Descending

The Azores now also have three DOCs (equivalent or DOP in Europe, AOC in France and DO in Spain), Pico, Biscoitos and Graciosa. Two were originally only for fortified wines (16% +) and aged on wood. These are DOC Pico (grown on two small coastal areas of the island) and DOC Biscoitos (a small, jasal part of the island of Terceira). The wines are made from Verdelho, Arinto dos Açores and Terrantez do Pico. Meanwhile, one can also find dry white wines and even a red wine here. This red wine is made from a field blend of 10 grapes including Castelão, but the latter is not yet interesting

DOC Graciosa is reserved for still white wine, made from the same three grapes plus Fernão Pires and Malvasia Fina. Today more Vinho Regional Açores is made than DOC. Inevitably in this cool climate it is mostly white, but there is also good, light red, including some Merlot.