Landscape of the Pico Island Vineyard Culture — Man’s Struggle with Nature
The Landscape of the Vine Culture on the island of Pico was classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, due to its unique characteristics in the world. A place where the vines are grown on black lava floors and represent an example of human ingenuity in the face of nature’s adversities.
In the Azores, the culture of vineyards on the island of Pico began at the end of the 15th century, when the island was settled. The settlers took advantage of the land resulting from the most recent lava spills (called “biscuits”) for the vineyard plantations, and experimented with various grape varieties, until they stabilized in those that best adapted to the characteristics of the island’s soil and climate.
Thanks to the volcanic soil, rich in nutrients, to the dry and hot micro-climate of the slopes, protected from the wind by walls of rough and dark stone, heated by the rays of the sun, the Verdelho grape variety, believed to be from the Mediterranean and introduced in the 15th century, was one of those that adapted to the Azorean climate and terrain, resisting until today.
With all these characteristics combined, the vineyards on the island of Pico achieved exceptional conditions of production and maturation, giving rise to a very sweet liqueur wine, with a magnificent gold color, which quickly became very popular in aristocratic families.
This Pico wine gained fame inside and outside the archipelago, having been exported to many countries in Europe and America, even reaching the tables of the Russian court.
Currais and Curraletas
In its early days, the cultivation of vineyards on the island of Pico faced some problems that forced the inhabitants to find ingenious solutions. The volcanic soil, rough and arid; the wind and the salt of the sea water, brought by its gusts; and, finally, an Atlantic climate that did not offer the warmth for wine growing; all these were conditions at the outset that did not favor the production of the vineyard.
Thus, the solution found by the settlers was the creation of walls, perpendicular and parallel to the coastline, built with loose basalt rock, forming the so-called “currais” or “curraletas”, small stone squares that protect the plantations from the sea wind but leave the necessary sunlight for its maturation, creating a kind of “greenhouse effect” that allows the full development of the vineyards.
These lands, called Pico Island Vineyard Culture Landscape, were classified as World Heritage by UNESCO, in 2004, as they represent an extraordinary example of adapting agricultural practices to a remote and adverse environment. This Landscape is composed of a coastal area of 987 hectares, and a second area, called “buffer zone”, of 1,924 hectares.
The extensive system of “currais”, as well as the buildings (houses, cellars, warehouses, mills and churches), paths and small access roads, were built by generations of farmers over the centuries. The complex, containing “corrais” that have since been abandoned and others that continue their production, is largely intact, extremely well preserved and without the introduction of modern structures or buildings.
The sites of Lajido da Criação Velha and Lajido de Santa Luzia are the greatest examples of this art of parceling the land that this distinction has come to recognize.
The wine of the island of Pico
During the Discoveries, the privileged position of the Archipelago of the Azores, for the scale and supply of fleets and subsequent maritime lines, was decisive in placing the wines produced on the islands in the various departures of the world, particularly the wine produced on the island of Pico. The chronicles refer to the presence of wine from the Azores in the vessels that supplied themselves in Porto das Pipas, on Terceira Island, and went to ports in the Indies and in the overseas.
Later, in the 18th century, Azorean wine sold well in North America, the Antilles, Hamburg and St. Petersburg, being appreciated by the Tsars of Russia.
However, in the second half of the 19th century, the vineyards of the Azores were decimated by pests (oidium tukeri and phylloxera), causing production to fall in a catastrophic manner. Hundreds of families were left destitute, forced to emigrate to the United States.
When trying to find pest resistant varieties, Azorean producers resorted to the import, for grafting, of varieties and hybrids from America, but they also imported new diseases that further aggravated the situation of the existing varieties. Some of the American grape varieties, with emphasis on “Isabella”, ended up producing, giving rise to a low quality wine, called “vinho de cheiro”.
The tradition of quality wine is only resumed in the 80s of the 19th century, with actions for the conversion of the vine that allowed a significant recovery of the traditional Verdelho wine, and new varieties of European origin and new systems of conduction of the vine were also successfully introduced.
Combining a tradition dating back to the 15th century with very up-to-date knowledge and technologies, Pico wine has thus regained its place in quality wine cellars.
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