2020 Azores Wine Co Arinto Sur Lies

Its Origins

In 2010, António Maçanita began, along with the S. Miguel Agricultural Development Services, the winemaking work of the Terrantez do Pico grape variety. Unique in the world, this nearly extinct caste reveals a surprising freshness, mineral quality and salinity. Afterwards, in 2013, there was a joint venue on Pico island, put together by Fita Preta wines and Insula Vinus, in order to produce a wine based on one more autochthon grape variety of the Region: Arinto dos Açores. This is how the Azores Wine Company was born and in 2014, the first year, it was already producing 10.000 bottles. The single varieties white wines Arinto dos Açores and Verdelho O Original of the Rare Grapes Collection represent more than half the production. However, the red and rose wines are also quite surprising. Lastly, there is the work already being developed in the fortified wines domain, in search of the famous Pico wines that travelled the world over 400 years ago. Maçanita said that in Azores, they are under the "Proteção integrada regime," which translates to "sustainable." They also have four hectares under organic. And with the impossibility of using tractors, all vineyards are treated by hand. In regards to sulfites, he said they are "for now the only trustable, measurable analysis that demonstrates how a winery works. In this era of so much [misinformation] about natural/organic/biodynamic, SO2 levels [are] the only thing we can measure. We every year [are] the lowest or one of the lowest of Portugal....Our whites are half to one-third of average sulfites [for] whites. For me, it is relevant, and that is why I started to put it on the back label. Transparency yes, BS no...."