92-93 Points, Robert Parker Wine Advocate - "I tasted the 2023 Verdelho o Original one week before bottling. 2023 was an average year, not particularly rainy or dry and much like 2021 and 2022. This feels quite tense—more tense than 2022—like a hypothetical blend of 2021 and 2018 (2018 was very linear). It has 12% alcohol, a pH of 3.42 and 6.69 grams of acidity. It's quite balanced, with freshness, acidity and minerality. The first pressing, which was 80% of the volume, fermented in stainless steel, and the second pressing (20% of the juice) was in used oak barrels, where the wine matured with lees for a period of eight months. This is still very primary, with some sensations of botrytis, but I believe it will go in the direction of the 2021 and the 2020."

17++ Points, JancisRobinson.com - "Ripe green fruits, fresh pears – openly aromatic in its fruit, almost tropical. High acid and very salty. Touch of stone dust. The acidity really builds in the mouth. Embryonic and needs time for saltiness and fruit to mesh more fully."

ABOUT AZORES WINE COMPANY: ONE-OF-A-KIND TERROIR IN THE WORLD!

The history of the Azores Wine Company began with a project to recover the Terrantez do Pico variety in 2010, by winemaker António Maçanita and culminates with the foundation of the company on 3 April 2014, together with Filipe Rocha, Paulo Machado. On the island of Pico, the vines grow in extreme conditions, very close to the sea and planted in the crevices of the bed rock, in volcanic soil, defying the very definition of soil. Pico's vineyards are unusually close to the sea, between 50 and 300 metres; so close that the sea sprays the vineyards with salt. Viticulture on Pico Island is as a battle between the sea and the Pico Mountain. In the Azores Wine Company's vineyards, the salt water seeps underground and mixes with the fresh rainwater in a brackish combination that the vines’ roots drink from. Currently, the recovery of the Azores' indigenous grape varieties, located mostly on Pico Island, make up the typical profile of Azores wines. Completely unique, the almost extinct Terrantez do Pico variety reveals itself with surprising freshness, minerality and salinity. The white Arinto dos Açores and Verdelho O Original monovariety from the Rare Grapes Collection, represented more than half of production. They also innovated with its Volcanic Series of red and rosé Azores wines.