Pico

The current specification dates the settlement of Pico to 1460 and says the first vines arrived with it and spread quickly. The IVV and the 2014 technical file credit Franciscan friars with introducing the vine. They say the friars found conditions like those of Sicily and brought Verdelho; the file presents this as what is said to have happened. The 2014 file says Pico's drier climate led to extensive planting from the start of settlement in the fifteenth century. Its fortified white wine was exported to most of northern Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Both the file and the IVV mention bottles of Pico Verdelho found in the cellars of the Russian tsars. To protect the vines from wind and salt spray, islanders built a network of loose stone walls. UNESCO recognised it in 2004 as a cultural landscape of humanity.

Pico, in the central group of the Azores, is the archipelago's second largest and most mountainous island. Its summit rises to 2,351 m, the highest point in Portugal. The mountain causes uneven rain between slopes. This partly explains why vines dominate the western flank, which is generally drier than the north-east coast. The designation covers only land at or below 100 m, in Madalena and parts of São Roque and Lajes.

As the youngest island in the group, Pico has shallow, little-developed volcanic soils, full of stones. The rules require lithosols on recent basalt lavas with rock outcrops. In places there is "lajido", consolidated lava sheets at the surface. Growers clear stones until they reach soil and pile them into walls around small plots, the "curraletas". The coastal climate is temperate (Köppen Csb), with rainy winters and dry, mild summers. Relative humidity is 70-80%, lower than on the other islands. In summer the lava sheets keep the day-night range small and the humidity low even at night.

The specification names minerality and salinity as the distinctive traits of all Pico wines. It describes them as fresh and fruity, with marked acidity and moderate alcohol. It explains that the stones in the soil absorb and reflect heat, helping the grapes ripen and their aromas develop. On lajido this is stronger and yields very ripe grapes for wines of overripe grapes, with stone-fruit aromas. The volcanic soils and strong Atlantic influence give the mineral, saline character. The currais shelter the vines and help them ripen. Dry whites are pale yellow, with citrus, iodine and some tropical fruit. Fortified wines are amber to brownish, usually dry or medium dry, with dried fruit, honey, caramel and spice after long ageing in barrel.

Since the 2024 amendment, DO Pico covers wine, fortified wine, sparkling wine and wine from overripe grapes; the 2014 file covered fortified wine only. At least 85% of the must must come from Arinto dos Açores, Verdelho and Terrantez do Pico. The rest may come from Galego Dourado and Malvasia Fina (Boal). Vines are trained along the ground, as gobelets or on cordons, and all work is done by hand. Minimum alcohol is 11% for wine, 16% for fortified wine, 11.5% for sparkling wine and 12% for overripe-grape wine. Fortified and overripe-grape wines may be bottled only after 36 months' ageing. The maximum yield is 70 hl/ha. The Azores also have the designations Biscoitos (Terceira) and Graciosa and the regional wine Açores. Pico's rules are not those of every Azorean wine.