July 3 - Visiting Pico Island

July 3: We took a ferry to Pico Island (the island nearby to Faial with the mountain I keep photographing) for a tour and wine tasting. Pico is the "newest" of the Azores islands, only 300,000 years old. It's mostly volcanic rock and the grape vines are planted in an among the maze of rock walls. Wine has been here since the mid-1400s with original thanks to Frei Gigante, a monk. There is some Flemish influence here as well. We brought home a couple of bottles of the wine, of course.