Landscape of the Pico Island Vineyard Culture
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How it came to be
On Pico, the second largest of the volcanic Azores islands in the Atlantic, long walls of black basalt run along the northern and western coasts and inland from the shore. They enclose thousands of small rectangular plots called currais, which shield the vines from wind and salt spray.
Vines arrived with the first settlers in the 15th century and were planted in plots with almost no soil. Production peaked in the 19th century, when Pico wines, especially Verdelho, were known abroad. It then declined through plant disease, soil loss and falling rainfall.
The area became a protected landscape in 1986, and 987 hectares were inscribed in 2004. Around the village of Criação Velha, just south of Madalena, vines are still grown with 19th-century methods.
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