Azores Wine Co. “Branco Vûlcanico” 2021

“texture rules the day here”

I got to meet Antonio Maçanita a year ago. He is an aspiring, brilliant winemaker with a wry smile and a great palate. Besides creating amazing low-intervention wines and rescuing forgotten grapes from extinction near his home in the Tejo region, he’s also started this project–doing the same thing where his dad grew up in the Azores. This is a wine grown on barren volcanic rock about 50m from the Atlantic Ocean.

The Azores have been growing wine grapes for centuries, because that’s one of the only things that can grow there. These black, intensely volcanic soils are poor in minerals, but they force grapevines to dig deep for water, nutrients and support. These vines have to drive their roots deep, which gives them deep root systems that can create grapes of exceptional concentration.

Abundant, salty texture would be an understatement with this wine. The Arinto grape in this wine is really more of a vehicle to give you big mineral mouthfeel. There’s interesting aromatics of orange peel and sea spray, but texture rules the day here, and provides a long, contemplative finish.