wow, that s intense. walking around the island, it s easy to see its rich winemaking history. but there is the role of people. so, the wine barrels, they came along in the carts, along the rocks. then they rolled it all the way down into it. then they pick it and put it on the ships. and if you venture inland, you ll find miles of abandoned vineyards and crumbling lava walls. so we recovered 120 hectares. it took us three years with 30 guys every day. because you wanted to grow the almost extinct grapes in the environment that they were originally grown in? exactly, 15 years ago, pico s vineyards were a museum, an open air museum. and today, it s an industry.
ago, and it explains why the land is so rugged. tourists come to hike its unique landscape alongside whale watching and dolphin spotting. but i m here for its volcanic wines. in fact, unesco has granted pico world heritage status for its vineyard culture. and i m starting to see why. let s see. wejust pick a grape. fortunato is always last to harvest on the island because he needs to wait till his grapes reach a higher sugar level. almost like raisins. what does that tell you? it tells me the probably alcohol that i m going to have. so now it s around 13, so i need to be at least 18. so it needs a bit more sunshine? yes. now we re going to go all the way up to the windmills. so you grew up in and around these beautiful vineyards? well, beautiful. at that time, it didn t
that s it. unlike fortunato s, the azores wine company s adega is modern, built to blend in with the landscape. you can taste the sea. signature of the of the wine. yes, you can taste the sea. the essence of the sea. and that s a very particular, uh. and that s why these wines are unique. with so many people now growing grapes locally on the island, a new generation of winemakers are rising up and doing things a little differently. katja rents space at awc to make wine until she can build her own adega. so what do you do differently that perhaps the others don t do? ok, so maybe for me it s work with small quantities, not big quantities. so i try to do a little bit work with barrels, with steel tanks, a little bit of maceration,
while i was around mexico city, there was one place ijust had to check out. within the waterways of sochimilco lies a local legend. step onto an island here and you will find among a few small huts a place which some say is cursed. welcome to the island of dolls. this strange little place has become a massive tourist attraction, but its origins are actually pretty dark. so, around 70 years ago, a young girl drowned nearby, and so the island s owner started placing dolls around here for her spirit to play with. but the story gets much weirder than that. after filling the entire island with dolls, the owner himself died in the exact same spot as the young girl.
wines are unique. with so many people now growing grapes locally on the island, a new generation of winemakers are rising up and doing things a little differently. katja rents space at awc to make wine until she can build her own adega. so what do you do differently that perhaps the others don t do? ok, so maybe for me it s work with small quantities, not big quantities. so i try to do a little bit work with barrels, with steel tanks, a little bit of maceration, carbonic maceration. you re doing it your way. yes. now there s just one last thing to do before i call it a night. best experience that you can have in our time. you sit at the table with your friends. you have the barrel right behind you. well, it s very nice that you have a bed if you want to drink it.