Pico – The Orchard of the Azores

Madalena Pico Azores

While in Horta, we could sea the island of Pico just to our East. The massive volcanic peak, actually the tallest point in Portugal, was usually shrouded in clouds. But one day when the weather cleared we took the local ferry over for a day tour of the island.

We had been drinking wines from Pico at the restaurants in Horta, so we decided to try some wine tasting. It turned out everything was closed for a holiday, but the lady at tourist information booth called the winemaker of the largest winery and he agreed to meet us at his winery (she said it was close to his house). We grabbed a couple of taxis to take us there and then, show us around the island. When the driver told us the winery was in the winemaker’s garage, we were a little concerned, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

The taxis dropped us off at a house up on the hill and left. We started getting a bad feeling as the house was a little run down, there was laundry drying on the lines and mangy looking dogs barking at us, no signs of a winery. A lady came out of the house and didn’t speak any English, she went back in and got here husband, who didn’t speak any English, but we pantomimed, used our very limited Portuguese and found out he was calling his son, who spoke English.

The taxi driver returned, the son showed up and we were taken behind the house to the winery “Curral Atlantis” where they make around 70,000 bottles of wine each year. The wines are surprising good. The father and son team make lighter reds with a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, and refreshing dry whites, primarily from Verdhol. We tasted all of there wines including a box wine made for the locals from “American” grapes. The consensus was that it tasted like Concord grape jelly. The winemakers really made us feel at home and by the end we tasted the Reserva right out of the barrel.

They have grown grapes on Pico for many years, but because most of the ground was covered by lava they had to clear the rocks before they could plant. Their solution was to build lava rock walls around the grape vines to protect them from the wind and to provide additional heat to help the grapes develop. There are miles and miles of these walls or “corrals” that enclose the vines. They say, stretched end to end, they could circle the earth at the equator.

With the winery tour and tasting done and a few bottles of wine purchased we headed of to the “Cheese Factory”. This turned out to be a small building on the side of the road, where a woman made cheese. She cut up some cheese for us to taste, we broke out the wine from our wine tasting and had a wonderful wine and cheese party. The cheese was so good we ended up buying six wheels for Berkeley East (we had no idea where we were going to put them).

Stuffed with cheese and sedated with wine we ventured out with our taxi drivers to see the rest of Pico. After a great tour and wonderful day seeing the sights of the island, we arrived back in Madalena, just in time for our ferry back to Faial.

Previous Comments 

28 Jun 2010

Irene Smith

Wow that sounds like the best wine and cheese party EVER!