How do we end up producing spirits?
Paulo was an international consultant traveling the World. I was the daughter of Madeiran emigrants in South Africa in the hospitality industry. Paulo was headhunted to turnaround a local farming company and I was returning to Madeira when my parents decided to come back to the island.
We met and married. I wanted to open a bar and Paulo wanted to produce wine. He founded a wine venture and then built a brewery and I was still to open my bar! Challenged by some friends we invested in a craft distillery in Edinburg. Why not open our own distillery with a tasting room and bar I thought? I would have my bar and Paulo would be able to put to work his fermenting and fortified wine aging experience and learn a new skill. Perfect!
But where shall we do it? By coincidence, my parents had just given us a country house in Canhas – Ponta do Sol. What a perfect place to build a distillery, just at the heart of the sugarcane crop district in Madeira.
Many questions still troubled our minds and were yet to be answered: What shall we produce? Why should we do it? How can we do it?
Very quickly, we decided that our spirits and the way we would produce them, should reflect the connection between our lives and the island. Both of us had lived out of Madeira for many years but always returned to the island. Why? The island had this strong and strange connection to the World but was able to attract us, like a magnet, time and time again. Thus we decided to honour those who left the island in demanding times but, like us, never forgot it.
I hope you enjoy drinking our spirits as we did making them. Savour them slowly…just as they were made.
Cheers,
Maria Nascimento
ABOUT OUR FRIENDS
Whom do we work with?
We source all our ingredients and equipment from people we consider our friends and that share our values for craftsmanship. Being it growing the most perfumed fennel or tangerines relying on carefully catered soil or fabricating a unique still with carefully hand welded seams.
People that do not rush things just to increase profit. People that know that there is no substitute for time, being it learning a skill, growing a plant or aging a spirit. People that thrust us and that we thrust. People that are proud of working with us as we are proud of working with them. People that do no compromise when it comes to produce the best products. Products that are durable and enjoyed by the people who buy them.
Meet some of these remarkable people
