PicoWines – Celebrating 75 years of history
This year the largest wine producer on the Island of Pico in the Azores, PicoWines, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Essential Business was invited to join in the celebrations and discovered how this cooperative of 250 wine producers is making its mark in overseas markets.
Text: Chris Graeme; Photos: PicoWines
I have to admit that when I was invited by PicoWines to sample their range of wines to commemorate the cooperative’s 75th anniversary, I was curious.
I had always thought of wines from this region as being exotic outliers with a very restricted market, produced for those peculiar ‘aficionados’ with eccentric palates – the kind of wines that you’re not expected to like, but you might learn to appreciate over time, rather like white wines grown in the South-East of England.
Perhaps, I was influenced by the idea that in last two decades of the 20th century wine production and sales from the Azores had been in decline. However, like in England, quality has radically changed as I was about to find out when all of my preconceived notions were turned on their heads.
The first landmark you see from the air on your approach to the mysterious Island of Pico is the summit of Portugal’s highest mountain at 2,351 metres, the majestic Pico Mountain, which emerges from swirling creamy white clouds like an île flottante dessert when draped in snow.
The mountain, which during my two-day trip was almost always visible, dominates the island whose population stands at 13,895 according to the 2021 census, and in part informs the local climate noted for short, warm and muggy summers and long, cool, wet and windy winters with temperatures ranging from as low as 55ºF in the winter and up to 78ºF in the summer.
It is generally agreed that wine production at the Island of Pico Wine Cooperative (Cooperativa Vitivinícola da Ilha do Pico- CVIP) – known simply under the brand name PicoWines – the largest producer on the island – has grown in leaps and bounds over the past decade as Losménio Goulart, the President of the Board of Directors at the cooperative explains.
Selling in 16 overseas markets
Mr. Goulart tells me that PicoWines is looking to export more of its production overseas (not including Portugal) where it currently sells around 10% of the total output.
“The current administration, which has been in place since 2017, inherited a situation where there had been no international strategy”, he says.
This is surprising, really, when you consider that PicoWines has been celebrating its 75th anniversary this year after being founded in 1949 by the hand of 12 founders.
After a period of preparation and organization, followed by the construction of its headquarters, the cooperative’s winery began its production in 1961 with the grape varieties, Verdelho (shipped to Imperial Russia for the Czars) , Arinto and Terrantez do Pico. CVIP’s first wine, with the label ‘Pico’, was launched on the market in 1965.
But despite 19th century success in glacial St.Petersburg, this winery was essentially catering to the local domestic and regional markets, and its wines were quite unknown outside of Portugal, and even here were seen as niche curiosities.
“We weren’t selling wine overseas; we weren’t even selling much in Portugal, but today we are selling our wines in 16 countries with relevant sales in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland,” he says.
“In Portugal, PicoWines were basically sold from a little shop that sold regional products in Rua de Madalena in Lisbon that distributed the wines from the Island of São Miguel (Azores), but now our wines are sold up and down the country and represent around 13% of our total sales”, he informs.
Today, international and mainland Portugal sales represent around 25% of total sales with the remainder sold on the region’s various islands.
Since 2017, PicoWines has created a network of distributors and reps that supply shops, hotels, and restaurants and their sommeliers. Supermarkets too have become a thing over the past few years, with the market share now representing around 20% of the distribution of Portuguese wines in general.
“On an international level we still have a lot to do, but our strategy is to base our sales in three main areas: the territory outside the Azores, the Azores, and wine tourism, the latter of which for us is ideal for marketing our wines to those visiting the island and the other islands in the archipelago for wine holidays with wine tastings and guided tours. If we get this balance right, when one area suffers a downturn, we can focus on the others to sustain us”, the PicoWines president explains.
This strategy is not only clever but necessary since 75% of wine produced in the Azores is not actually drunk by the locals, but rather by visiting tourists.
Mr. Goulart admits that PicoWines was hard-hit my the Covid-19 pandemic because its wine sales were focused on the HORECA Channel (Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafeterias) whose value derives from tourism.
“We didn’t have distribution channels with the large hypermarkets and supermarkets and that made us vulnerable. Thankfully, we’ve changed that.”
Wine in the blood
I interviewed the president on our final evening of our two-day wine tour when we are lucky to be among the guests of honour at a dinner to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the cooperative.
An emotional and moving event, full of speeches, laugher and smiles, we are already in a buoyant mood since prior to this we had the opportunity to sample a wide range of wines under the guidance of PicoWines winemaker, Bernardo Cabral who joined the team in 2017.
Bernardo is a man who has wine in his blood. Born in Angola, he knew he wanted to work with wines from the age of 12; something quite natural, perhaps, when you learn that he comes from a family of wine makers.
He started out at Quinta da Romeira/Companhia das Quintas (1999 – 2004), and had his first major challenge as head winemaker at Casa de Santa Vitória. (2004 – 2012)
Bernardo was responsible for the wines at the Companhia das Lezírias (2012 – 2019), where he created the Tyto Alba brand. Today, he is a consultant to producers from the north to the south of the country and islands: Vicentino (Alentejo coast), Balanches and Herdade da Bombeira (Alentejo – Mértola), Casa de Santa Vitória (Alentejo – Beja), Murgas (Bucelas), Pegos Claros (Palmela), Quinta do Val Moreira (Douro), Arvad (Algarve), and of course at PicoWines.
Bernardo explains that he has had a close relationship with the Azores since he was a child as he has family on the Island of Terceira. He now has a house on Pico and proudly says he is a “Picoroto”.
A few years back, he visited Pico with a cousin and frequently returned. During a holiday on the island he told a friend, also a winemaker, who had suggested he bring investors to Pico, that he would never be a wine maker on the island as his friend was already doing a fantastic job.
Never say never, because all that changed in 2017 when he got a call from the cooperative saying they had heard great things about him and offered him a job as winemaker. The rest is history.
As we sample the wines he tells us that the most important thing for them is the stock. “It’s like an art collection, where with each generation the paintings become more valuable. It’s the same with our stock based on the creative work of generations of winemakers, many of whom have all passed away”.
“I recovered the terroir and all the potential of Pico in a very raw way, through its noblest grape varieties – Verdelho, Terrantez do Pico and Arinto dos Açores”, he explains. “It was a huge challenge and privilege to work with these incredible partners, who treat the vineyards like children,” he continues.
Bernardo takes us on a tour of the winery and explains that the approach was to involve all of the vineyards within the cooperative on the island in a new wine-making approach, working with small 2,500 litre batches, using spontaneous yeasts, and virtually zero sulphur to create what he calls “low intervention wines” meaning as natural as possible with no additives or artificial accelerants.
The winery originally had three different interconnected buildings, but has been added to over the years and includes a cooling room for the whites after fermentation. The stock is stored at the back is the premises and houses some of the best, slightly fortified wines with around 40,000 litres all told. The oldest wines kept here date from 2003.
Bernardo tells us there are plans to reorganise the interior spaces, moving the winemaking to the back of the winery and create a visitors centre and shop at the front as part of PicoWines wine tourism strategy.
The beginning of modernisation
One who is very much alive and made a huge contribution to improving the quality of the wines at the cooperative was Maria Álvares.
Almost local – she hails from the Island of Terceira – Maria studied winemaking on the mainland at Vila Real University before returning to the Azores.
Maria oversaw the installation of modern equipment to improve the wines – pneumatic presses, peristaltic pumps, and a new destalker.
Back in 1949 when the cooperative was founded, the cellar was originally built to make the traditional style of Pico wine from Verdelho, Arinto, and Terrantez grape varieties, but it soon became apparent that this would not make enough money.
The next step was to vinify grapes from American vines and hybrids. This was successful and the Pico co-op still has a brand today called ‘Cavaco’, produced in both red and white. These table wines generally sell for under €5 a bottle and are highly popular among the Azorian emigrant community in the United States.
However, the wines that are really in demand of their quality and distinctive fresh mineral taste include the whites and reds produced by Bernardo Cabral and António Brito who have raised the bar to a whole new level, while building on the hard work and expert foundations of their predecessors.
The first wine to be sampled is the sparkling Blanc des Blanc Brut Nature 2018, one of 1,200 bottles made using the champenoise method. PicoWines introduced a trial wine in 2016, and the first certified wine in 2017. It is elegant, refreshing, and slightly salty.
Next up is a 2022 Frei Gigante, considered one of the top wines on the island and very affordable at €21 a bottle. It has a playful aroma of citrines and tropical fruits with hints of brine and algae. It was named after the Franciscan friar Pedro Gigante who in the 15th century brought the first rootstocks of Verdelho, a white grape imported either from Cyprus or Sicily (there is no consensus about its origins) and decided to plant vines on the island.
We also sample a Verdelho Branco 2021 which is marked by citrus notes and brine with a volcanic mineral profile. Elegant and refreshing it pairs well with fish and seafood.
The Terrantez do Pico 2022, which we try next, has distinctive notes of grapefruit, peach, and arrack fruit with volcanic mineral overtones and iodine. Of all the wines it is the one with the most brine and acidity.
The 2021 Rola Pipa is another popular white served in restaurants. The very gentle pressing of the selected grapes guarantees the extraction and is a good expression of the grape variety and the terroir. It was fermented at 15ºC for three weeks and left to ferment for 10 months.
Talking of restaurants, we are taken to a first-class eatery on our two-day Pico island wine odyssey. The Bioma Restaurant serves a veritable fusion of local seafood and cuisine prepared with locally-sourced produce and herbs to conjure a truly Azorean dining experience.
This charming gourmet restaurant is a project from chefs Rafael Ávila Melo – himself from Pico -, and Franco Pinilla who hails from Argentina where the two both met and later decided to forge their current business partnership.
Rafael spent four years as the chef at the Michelin star Nerua at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (No 32 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2019) and during this period he accompanied it’s Chef Josean Alija at international gastronomy events.
Franco, who comes from Patagonia, was head chef at Mishiguene, led by chef Tomás Kalika, ranked among The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and recommended by the Michelin Guide, and executive chef, with Chef Julieta Caruso, at the Mezcla Group, where he acquired skills for practicing sustainable gastronomy which both continue today at Bioma.
Perched on the top of the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, with a outdoor patio for summer lunching, the best suggestion from the chefs is the menu Azorean Roots (€145 per head with local wine pairing, including many from Pico Wines), where you will embark on a nine-course journey to discover the archipelago’s cuisine with authentic flavours based on the local gastronomic heritage passed down through generations and influenced by the islands’ unique geographical and climatic conditions.
We also lunch at Atmosfera in Madalena which is cocooned within a misty, almost alpine low slopes setting and serves international cuisine build around a healthy concept, blending Italian and Azorean styles from charming young proprietors Inês and Hugo who opened for business in May this year. (2024)
Matured in volcanic caves
Another fascinating stop-off on our journey of discovering the majestic island of Pico and its wine heritage is the Torres Caves Visitor Centre (Gruta das Torres) which displays the largest lava tunnel in Portugal at a length of 5,150 metres and is part of the Lajidos lava field formation.
The entire complex is devoted to explaining the volcanic history of the island and the great eruption at Cabeço Bravo around 1,500 years ago which the formed lava tunnel.
While the centre was open when we visited, the caves were not. However, usually you can walk the length of the tunnel for 450 metres in a geological experience that lasts an hour. Visitors are provided with all the necessary equipment for the descent where you can see different types of lava and geological formations, including lava stalactites and stalagmites produced during the island’s violent volcanic past. Make sure you take sturdy shoes with soles that grip – the descent can be very wet and slippery.
However, we do see the Bridge Pitt (the central part not surprisingly looks like a bridge), and view the openings or ‘skylights’ that were the result of the collapse of the cave roof after the eruption. The cave itself extends 800 metres upslope and 4km downslope, formed as a result of a lava river flowing towards the sea. A crust was formed when it cooled and when the eruption stopped the hot magma flowed out leaving the long hollow tube-like tunnel which you can explore.
We discover that because the temperature in the caves is stable all-year-round at 15ºc, with between 80-100% humidity, Pico Wines carried out an experiment to see how the wines mature in the caves. Teams of men carried around 1,500 bottles of white wine into the caves down that long, slippery slope – backbreaking work indeed – and let them sit there for two years to mature in a natural environment rather like champagne.
Interestingly enough, the co-ops’ vineyards of Criação Velha we go on to visit that afternoon, near the town of Madalena, are grown on the same volcanic lava beds which cover the tunnels. The storage of the wines in the caves is described as the wines “returning to the mother’s womb” which is rather poetic, not to mention lending a more volcanic character to the wines which are acidic, do not oxidise, and have a very slightly salty profile.
The Currais – a unique way of wine growing
Because of the wind and brine blown in from there sea, normal vertically grown vines would not survive, however, on Pico the vines are grown low to the ground where they sprawl out with the roots taking all the necessary nutrients from the volcanic mineral soil.
To protect the vines, they are grown within a series of rectangular and circular low-enclosure walls made from volcanic rocks known as ‘currais’. Some of these are barely two metres wide by three metres long.
Another reason for this centuries-old method of viniculture is that the ‘currais’ help the ripening process in this cool damp climate by surrounding the vines with sun-warmed stones which continue to emit heat after sunset.
Historically, the results were impressive, and the mid-Atlantic position of the Azores certainly helped wine sales throughout the 16th and 17th centuries,
By the 18th and 19th centuries, Azores wines were sufficiently well known to find markets in the United States, Europe, Russia and Brazil. Today, these vineyards are a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Prized by Czars and Popes
Indeed, Pico wines even reached the tables of the Czars of Russia and the Vatican. The last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, always had Pico wines in his collection.
At Criação Velho we learn about a very special vintage edition of just 86 bottles of ‘Czar’, a completely natural wine made without any addition of alcohol, sugar, or yeasts, and bottled in Vista Alegre crystal engraved with 20.6 carat gold.
Produced by José Duarte Garcia of the Czar Vineyards, it was the last ‘Czar’ to be produced in the 20th century from this entirely independent family-owned company, where tradition, experience, and knowledge across three generations are working to preserve the history of Pico’s late harvest, unfortified wines. This limited edition doesn’t come cheap. Aimed at collectors, you’ll need to stump up the imperial sum of €7,500 a bottle for this princely nectar.
A cruel history
After visiting the ‘currais’, we just about have time to tour the small, but fascinating Pico Wine Museum in the town of Madalena which is dominated by a Dragon tree said to be over 800 years old.
We are met by our guide who also confirm’s that Franciscan friars probably brought the first grape rootstock to Pico during the period of settlement and discovery. They constructed churches and the wine was essential for celebrating masses.
What is shocking is that the Portuguese brought here, (There were also settlers from Flanders and France) were basically treated like indentured salves by the local landowning lords who were based on the nearby Island of Faial.
We also visit Volcanoes House (Casa dos Vulcões) which provides an authentic journey to the centre of the Earth in an interactive dome where visitors discover the internal energy of the planet and experience the terrible earthquake of 1973 using a seismic simulator. With a magnitude 5.5, it did considerable damage to 2,000 homes in Pico and left nearly 5,000 people homeless.
This brings us back to the culmination of our two-day adventure coinciding with the 75th anniversary of PicoWines which was marked by a commemorative dinner – more like a banquet really – at the winery where the future of the cooperative was toasted with a limited edition wine – Arinto dos Açores 2020.
Bernardo explains that only 1,746 bottles of this wine were produced, made from century-old vines (Criação Velha Vineyards) and exclusively from the Arinto dos Azores grape variety.
The wine spent three days in cold maceration with the skins where it began fermentation with local yeasts before being transferred to a French oak vat and then aged for 8 months before bottling and was left to continue aging for almost 3 years.
I take my leave of Pico Island with an understanding of the unique rarity of these volcanic vines, which born from a landscape forged in molten violence, have produced some of the world’s most unusual and surprisingly exquisite wines.