WORDS BY Katie Lockhart
SEPTEMBER 21, 2024
AAli Bullock moves quickly around his hotel’s garden, showing off his newly planted Japanese plum tree and row of pineapple plants, which thrive in the volcanic soil of São Miguel, the largest island in the remote Azores. Here, he owns the Solar Branco Eco Estate and The Gin Library, the most extensive gin bar in Europe.
While the hotel is a draw, the most fascinating part of the property is arguably its bar, tucked inside the property’s old horse stables. Launched with 300 brands in 2019, it now contains more than 1,500. Its wooden shelves are lined with bottle after bottle, and Bullock struggles to find space for new additions, rearranging and storing gins like a jigsaw puzzle.
As you settle in for a drink, look behind the bar. You’ll see something unexpected: a Formula 1 helmet signed by Daniel Ricciardo. It’s a memento from a former life. The hotelier and gin-enthusiast spent five years as the Global Senior Manager for Infiniti. He led the company’s Formula 1 sponsorship with Red Bull. And then, in 2017, he left the fast-paced world of Grands Prix for a stunning Portuguese island in the North Atlantic Ocean.
During his five years in the position, he led Infiniti’s Formula 1 sponsorship with Red Bull. “On a very fundamental level, you’ve paid to put your logo on the car. But the next part of the sponsorship is how do you activate it in a way that’s going to tell everyone what you actually are?” he said. “Is that social media? Is that events? Is that PR?”
“I can remember my first week in the office. My boss was like, ‘Ali, you're off to the UK to go to the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes,’” he continues. “You know, it's your first week. Already, you’re flying off to kind of the mothership of the team. It was incredible.”
A hint of nostalgia creeps through when he recalls arranging VIP events with Christian Horner at five-star hotels such as Hong Kong’s The Upper House or 10,000-person events with Daniel Ricciardo at a mall in Melbourne. For Bullock, it was all about utilizing the talent and the car — on and off the track.
Being paid to attend races was a pinch-me moment for Bullock, a Brit who grew up cheering on Nigel Mansell at Silverstone. “It is a high-risk sport, yes, it’s fast, it’s sexy, and it’s dangerous. But it’s very, very corporate,” he said. “You know, ultimately, this is about money.”
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The Gin Library is Europe’s most extensive gin bar, containing more than 1500 brands.
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In a former life, Bullock led Infiniti's Formula 1 sponsorship with Red Bull.
Bullock led various “fan activations” for rabid viewers around the world. He would routinely organize one of the drivers to meet ticket holders at or before a race. “Daniel Ricciardo was without doubt the best. He was just wonderful with all the fans, and everybody loved him,” he said. “We would do Q&A with the fans, he would engage with them and stay way longer than he should have done to sign autographs.”
“Personally, if I were in Red Bull, I’d be putting Daniel into the car for the rest of the season,” Bullock continues. “Daniel was marketing gold. And he’s, of course, a very, very good driver.”
“It is a high-risk sport, yes, it’s fast, it’s sexy, and it’s dangerous. But it’s very, very corporate”
Ricciardo’s charisma, contagious grin and cheeky antics continue to make him a favorite on Drive to Survive. “I’d love to claim credit for that idea because it was always something that I wanted to do,” Bullock joked. But under Bernie Ecclestone’s ownership, cameras weren’t allowed into the paddock. “It was brilliant of Liberty Media to let cameras in and create a TV show.”
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Bullock and his wife, Caroline. The pair first came to the Azores on their honeymoon.
Bullock was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. It later proved to be an asset, allowing him to creatively problem solve and think visually, but did lead to a few mixups. “My emails would always like to have a few typos,” he said, laughing. “Occasionally, I called him Christian Hammer instead of Christian Horner.”
When Infiniti’s contract with Red Bull ended, they entered a relationship with Renault. “Honestly, it just wasn’t the same. It was still Formula 1, but my heart was always with Red Bull,” he said. “And outside of F1, my wife and I knew our time in Hong Kong was coming to an end.”
A perfect storm of Brexit, Hong Kong’s changing politics, and the switch to Renault made the Bullocks want to get back to Europe. They’d whale watched in the Portuguese islands during their honeymoon and decided to return.
“Once we landed in the Azores 14 years later, we were just like, ‘Oh my God, this is a beautiful place,’” Bullock said. “When we found out about this old 150-year-old building, we were sold.”
In 2018, he and his wife Caroline bought the crumbling estate on a historic citrus grove in volcanic stone ruins. Due to a melange of Portuguese and Azores bureaucratic headaches, as well as pandemic restrictions, the boutique hotel, with five apartments and three rooms, finally opened in 2023.
When entering each room, it is clear the husband-and-wife duo perfectly captured that hard-to-achieve minimalist aesthetic with a homey feel. Colorful handmade Portuguese tiles, concrete floors, and Scandinavian furniture decorate the thoughtfully restored rooms. On top of being 100-percent powered by 54 solar panels, the property is a haven for rescue cats – including an ear-less, cancer-surviving feline named Snowball – that roam the property and are regular bar flies (the cats even have their own Instagram account).
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The Solar Branco Eco Estate is located on a historic citrus grove.
“You bring us a bottle that I don’t have, I’ll swap it for our locally made Azorean gin.”
During the pandemic, Bullock started making his own gin, Ghosts of the Ocean, which he sells and exchanges at the bar, with proceeds going to his ocean conservation non-profit, Ocean Azores Foundation.
Channeling his social media prowess, he devised an ingenious way to grow their gin library. “We basically had this idea that we put on social media, saying if you bring us a bottle that I don’t have, I’ll swap it for our locally made Azorean gin,” he said. “We’re on a little island in the middle of the Atlantic. You have to really want to come here to go on holiday, and people are bringing us gin.”
He stops for a moment and grins. “It’s quite amazing.”
