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Buyer’s Spotlight: Portugal’s Atlantic wines

Volcanic wines have been some of the most talked-about of the past two decades. From Santorini to the Canaries, they have shown how lava and sea can create wines with something interesting to say. At a recent tasting, António Maçanita represented Portugal’s contribution to the category with wines from the Azores and Madeira that capture both the drama of volcanic viticulture and the complexity of site.

Maçanita grew up in Lisbon and has balanced projects on Portugal’s mainland with ventures on its islands. His Madeira label, Companhia de Vinhos Profetas e Villões, sources fruit from volcanic Madeira and from the smaller island of Porto Santo, a volcano marked by limestone topsoil carried in on the wind. The company name plays on local vernacular – Madeira’s inhabitants are known as ‘villains’ and Porto Santo’s as ‘prophets’. Maçanita works mainly with Verdelho, Sercial, Caracol (he makes the only 100% example) and Tinta Negra, working with low intervention to show the varietal expression of these island cultivars, normally obscured by maderisation or blending.

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The Azores Wine Company, his joint project with Filipe Rocha and Paulo Machado, is based around Pico, a cool and remote volcanic island on the same latitude as Lisbon. Pico’s vineyards are extraordinary: stone terraces built into lava beds, with vines planted directly into cracks in the flows. “There is no soil, just mother rock,” says Maçanita. Some sites lie so close to the Atlantic that they have lost 30m to the encroaching waves. Here, Arinto dos Acores, Terrantez do Pico and other varieties have just about survived from their heyday in the 19th century when production was as much as nine million litres a year from an area the size of the Isle of Wight. The company has reinvigorated local viticulture. The team grow and harvest alongside local people, including the island’s postman who has quit to focus full time on vineyards, and the head of the local fire brigade.

These original, engaging wines demonstrate how heritage, localism and extreme terroir can be turned into both a commercial and cultural opportunity. For sommeliers and independents, these projects deliver the original flavours, genuine narratives and strong regional identities that help wines stand out on lists and shelves.

• Portugal
• volcanic
• atlantic
• The Azores Wine Company
• Filipe Rocha
• Paulo Machado
• Pico
• António Maçanita