Pico island businessman Fortunato Garcia, the producer of the famous Czar wine, has just launched two exceptional wines, one of which is “the last Czar of the 20th century”. Knowing there is no Czar every year, this decade has seen five years without a Czar, although sometimes there are two consecutive years. After the 2013 Czar was considered one of the best Portuguese wines of the year, now comes the 2014. A wine that was bottled nine years after it was harvested.
So many years in old barrels have caused 45% of the wine, the famous part of the angels, to evaporate. However, in the producer’s opinion, this huge loss is justified by the richness that the wine acquires. The predominant notes include raisins, honey, caramelized orange, walnuts, and mandarin lemon. The taste has a perfect balance between the alcohol, as always natural, the stunning acidity, the remaining sugars, and the salt, which means that the persistence and, consequently, the longevity of this wine stays and lingers on the palate for many minutes as if the taste doesn’t want to let it go. The center of the tongue won’t stop salivating, always asking for more, because the freshness of the acidity combined with the salinity causes this sensation.
The other wine has a different story.
It will be called “The last Tsar of the 20th century”.

This wine is a tribute to its mentor, José Duarte Garcia, who still produced it in his lifetime and which was harvested in 1999.
Fortunato’s father didn’t want to add one of this year’s barrels to the blend as it was the one he liked best.
So it was left behind for special moments with family and friends, the businessman from Pico tells our newspaper.
In 2004, it was decided to transfer the remaining wine to demijohns, as the barrels were becoming too empty.
“Maybe too many patuscadas in the cellar,” laughs Fortunato.
The rest of this barrel will now be bottled in 86 bottles of Vista Alegre crystal, with 21.3K gold engraving.
It will go on sale in 2024, 25 years after the harvest.
Fortunato states this launch is important because the then-famous Pico wine disappeared after the plagues that hit Pico’s vineyards, mainly phylloxera, in 1872. The wine that for centuries had passed the tables of kings, popes, emperors, and Czars.
In its place appeared what came to be known as Verdelho do Pico.
However, since the 1960s, José Duarte Garcia has stubbornly continued what he called Verdelho wine, but it is made in the same way as it was in its heyday.
It is a wine from a later harvest and completely natural, with no additions. Pure grape juice, fermented, of course.
This is how all Tsars are produced to this day, so you don’t always get a Tsar due to uncertain weather conditions every year.
This 1999 wine will be the last Czar from the last century to be marketed.


As well as being the last Tsar of the 20th century, the bottles will be personalized with the name the buyer wishes to engrave. Only one bottle per name.
As the gold has to be baked to set into the crystal, only those who pre-order by December 31, before Vista Alegre is given the green light to produce them, will have their name engraved in gold.
The cost is 7,500 euros per bottle or 6,500 euros for pre-orders.

In Diário dos Açores – Osvaldo Cabral, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.

https://www.czarwinery.com/