The Azores Wine Company was founded on April 3, 2014 by the partners António Maçanita, Filipe Rocha and Insula Vinus, Lda.
The story of three people deeply linked to the Azores, who meet at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, around a passion to which they dedicate much of their lives: wines and gastronomy.
Among several projects to which they are linked, there are the production of wines in the Pico, the recovery of a caste in extinction, the promotion of the wines and gastronomy of the Azores.
In 2010, António Maçanita, together with the Agrarian Development Services of S. Miguel, started a winemaking process for the Terrantez Pico variety. Unique in the world, this almost extinct caste reveals itself and surprises by its freshness, minerality and salinity. The small production of this wine full of identity and authenticity travels to several countries, and becomes available in some of the best bottled and top restaurants. The Azores go through the big door!
This project follows in 2013 a joint work, this time in Pico Island, between Fita Preta Vinhos and Insula Vinus, for the production of a wine based on another autochthonous grape variety of the Region: Arinto dos Açores.
The joint work, the friendship and common vision to return to the Azores, and in particular the Island of Pico, the notoriety of other times, challenges them to create a new project.
This brings the Azores Wine Company, which already produces some 10,000 bottles in 2014. The Azores single-storey Arinto and Verdelho The Original Rare Grapes Collection represent more than half of the production. But they also surprise the red and rosé wines of the Volcanic Series.
The first sparkling wine from the Azores, made in 2011 in the Terrantez do Pico project, and already in 2014 the first Pico sparkling wine made from the Azores Arinto grape variety.
Finally, the work already under development in the area of liqueurs, in search of the famous Pico wines that have toured the world for more than 400 years.
