Fortunato Garcia was born in São Roque, Pico Island, Azores, in 1966. The youngest son of José Duarte Garcia, he has continued the wine production started by his father and has taken Czar to a level never dreamed of before

A teacher, a musician, and a businessman. Fortunato Garcia inherited a bit of everything, including a lot from each?

I was a teacher, like my parents. Nowadays, this profession doesn’t have the same recognition as it once did because society no longer recognizes that there is no education without teachers. However, I did it for pleasure and as a vocation. Being a musician is my “stress relief.” It’s good for the soul; it helps calm the mind and distracts from problems. Businessman… I started out with the Skipper nightclub in Santo António, but after 16 years of nightlife and with the death of my father, I closed that chapter and began to dedicate myself to Czar wines.

Your father started making wine. Did you follow him from the beginning?

I was born when he bought the vineyard in Criação Velha, an area later classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes, you could say I was with him from the start. From age five, I was already going to the vineyard to help in any way I could.

When did you really become responsible? Did it come naturally?

When I stopped university in 1989, I started helping with everything in the winery. I had to because my friends and I drank much of my father’s wine. From having to do it to enjoying it, it happened quickly. As my father got older, my responsibilities as a cellarman increased. When he passed away in 2007, my two brothers and I decided that I was the best equipped to continue our father’s legacy. In 2008, I produced the first Czar without him.

Czar’s visibility leaped dramatically thanks to the 2009 production launched in 2017 with packaging stamped by Vista Alegre. What was this process like?

Unlike all the others, one of the 2009 barrels continued fermenting until the 2010 harvest. Eight to ten months is normal, but 12 months of fermentation were unrecorded.

When the wine was sent to the laboratory, the analysis showed a volume of 20.1 alcohol without any type of enrichment; in other words, it was totally natural. This barrel was bottled separately and yielded 205 bottles. According to Edward Korry, Professor of Oenology at the University of Rhode Island in the United States, it was the “only known wine in the world that has naturally reached 20 degrees,” so it became a promotion czar. Few bottles were sold.

In 2017, since I had a wine that was considered impossible and unique worldwide, I decided to release it in a premium Vista Alegre crystal bottle with the rest of the existing bottles. There was only enough wine left to make 75.

It was a difficult decision, especially given the price of each bottle, but I believed that the time had come to put the Czar into the world of premium wines. The last 20 bottles were sold at 1500 euros each. The 75 bottles sold out in six months, which led me to think that the Czar could become a business after all, as it had never been one in my father’s lifetime and, until then, still wasn’t one.

This year, 2024, a new edition was launched by Vista Alegre, a tribute to my father. The only wine he kept has now been released under “The Last Tsar of the 20th Century”. It’s the wine from one of the 1999 barrels, his favorite, which only yielded 86 bottles. They are also engraved in 21.3-carat gold, and, in this case, instead of being numbered, they are personalized with a name chosen by the buyer. These are priced at 7500 euros, and there are only 48 left.

Is being a wine producer more than just a business?

Anyone who becomes a winemaker with the sole idea of running a business will only have a short lifespan—there is no rule without an exception.

Producing wine is a passion, and it involves moments of sharing and togetherness. It’s something that runs in our blood and is part of us. It’s moments of joy that often turn into pain, discouragement, and sadness.

To be a wine producer is to have a challenging soul, even in the face of all-powerful nature. Resilience is part of our name, but we never give up. Next year will be better.

Being a winemaker is a blessing because we are the ones who make this world happier. As Bukowski wrote, “If something bad happens, you drink to forget it. If something good happens, you drink to celebrate. If nothing happens, drink to make something happen.”

What’s it like carrying on your father’s legacy and always with the name Czar?

Carrying on my father’s legacy has been and continues to be an honor. Thanks to Professor José Duarte Garcia, this ancient wine, which has been drunk by Popes, Kings, Emperors and Tsars, exists today. My father maintained something that didn’t exist anywhere else in the Azores or the world.

The name Czar, wine, could not disappear.

From Made in the Azores, in Açoriano Oriental-Paula Gouveia, director

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