On one street, there are four restaurants side by side. The sign on the first one says "Best Food in the City" and the tables are almost empty. The second says "Best Food in the Country," and there are even fewer people inside. The third one claims to have the "Finest Cuisine Worldwide," and there are no patrons inside. The fourth says "Best Food on the Block" and it's packed with customers.
This old joke may well have something to do with the intentions of wine producers. Just as restaurants compete for the title of "best in the world," winemakers often try to outdo each other in creating wines of outstanding quality.
Some strive to make the best wines in their region, while others strive to make the best wines in the country or the world. But for us, the most enlightened approach is when a winemaker tries to make the best wine from where the grapes are grown. This path may seem the least ambitious, but it is the most demanding, requiring strong convictions.
Our favorite winemakers look inwards, not outwards. They ask themselves: "How can I do my best to capture the character of this particular piece of land?" And often conclude: "I'll make the wines I like to drink. If no one buys them, I'll drink them myself."
You would be right to think that this doesn't make much business sense. Successful corporations rely on focus groups and surveys to determine what the public likes and dislikes. Their products fit their ideas of what will sell, which in the wine world often leads to imitation rather than originality.
It is an approach that starts with analyzing a highly acclaimed wine and ends with imitating it. Nevertheless, such wines can be delightful. Plenty of people will love them and find satisfaction in them.
But a delicious wine is not necessarily the same as an original wine. Original wines that are also delicious are the best. The most original wines tend to be made by small, family-owned producers.
They need to keep their business going, but they are not subject to outside forces motivated primarily by sales and profits, or critics' ideas of what is right and desirable.
They have the liberty to establish their criteria for aesthetics. They may focus on unpopular or obscure grape varieties, on sites that few people consider capable of making good wines, or on styles that seem outdated or rejected by critics.
We do not mean to say that small wine producers are always the best or that their motives are always pure. Critics have a role to play as consumer advocates, warning the public that well-known, expensive brands are allowing standards to fall.
But critics also fulfill an important function by drawing attention to lesser-known producers or wines outside the mainstream, rather than acting as gatekeepers to the establishment.
In that spirit, we'd like to tell you about two producers who are making great wines by following their muse. (And there are dozens more wines that deserve the same attention). These producers aren't all tiny or unknown; their wines aren't always cheap. But the successes they've achieved have come from serendipitous work, not from assessing the market and adapting accordingly. They have endeavored to make the best wines on their sites.
In 2023, for the first time in history, a winery from the Azores was included in the list of the 100 best wineries of the year compiled by the authoritative American magazine Wine&Spirits. At the same time, Forbes magazine paid special attention to gastronomy, including Azores Wine Company in the list of 50 restaurants in the world worth visiting in 2023.
The wines themselves are a revelation. They have a pronounced minerality, tantalizing salinity, and impeccable balance that defies categorization. They are simply unlike anything else you have ever tasted. If you prefer numerical scores, you'll know that the renowned critics at Wine Advocate magazine consistently rate many of the company's wines over 90 points, and Vinha Centenaria 2018 received a stellar score of 95.
A perfectionist in the world of winemaking, Tomislav Markovic turned off the beaten banking path in 2011 and plunged into the fascinating world of wine! Tomislav focuses on the organic approach and Pinot Noir! The focus is on the production of complex and pure wines that combine the meticulous calculation akin to a banker's precision with the innate romanticism of a true farmer.
The combination of these elements results in wines that have both finesse and an authentic connection to the land. Open a bottle and call your friends!