Pico Island — Winemaking on the Edge

Pico Island in the Azores feels like a place the world forgot — until you step onto the volcanic black rock that cradles the vines. Working with Azores Wine Company was unlike anything I had experienced before. Here, the vines grow in small, stone-walled plots called currais, designed to protect them from Atlantic winds and salt spray.

Each day was a lesson in resilience — from tending to vines rooted in lava fields to watching the mist roll in from the ocean, cloaking the island in an otherworldly light. The wines here taste like the sea itself: fresh, mineral, and alive with energy.

It was a reminder that extreme conditions can produce extraordinary results. And that sometimes, beauty comes from working in harmony with nature’s challenges, not against them.