adega · Madalena
Picowines is the island's wine cooperative, founded in 1949 and today pooling the grapes of 180 member growers. It sits in Areia Larga on the edge of Madalena, a short walk from the ferry, and runs three booked tasting flights of its white, red and fortified wines.
| At a glance | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Madalena | |
| Address | Avenida Padre Nunes da Rosa, 29, 9950-302 Madalena | source ↗ |
| Coordinates | 38.5310° N, 28.5328° W | source ↗ |
| Phone | +351 292 622 262 | source ↗ |
| Website | https://www.picowines.com | source ↗ |
Best for Understanding what the currais actually produce, after you have walked them.
Picowines is the trading name of the Cooperativa Vitivinícola da Ilha do Pico, founded in 1949 and built on what the cooperative describes as the union of 180 members who bring it their best grapes each year. That structure is the reason it matters more than its size suggests: on an island of very small plots, a cooperative is how fragmented parcels of Verdelho become a bottled wine at all.
The cooperative sets out its own history as a recovery job. Its account credits the growers who used "singelas e frágeis paredes de pedra de basalto" to shelter the vine, and describes its work as restoring the noble varieties and the walled-plot culture that is now the UNESCO vineyard landscape. Read that page first if you have not walked the currais: this building is where the thing you walked through arrives in a glass.
The premises sit in Areia Larga, on the northern edge of Madalena and within walking distance of the ferry berth, which makes it one of the few things on the island you can reach on foot from a day trip off Faial.
Tastings are a booked appointment, not a walk-in: the cooperative states plainly that "as reservas carecem de marcação". Three flights are offered. "Um, dois, Terroir" is three wines, two white blends and a red, over 30 to 40 minutes. "Atlântica" is five whites across its ranges, over 40 to 50 minutes. "Da Terra ao Mar" is five wines taking in whites, a red and a fortified, also 40 to 50 minutes. Each is introduced with the history and an explanation of what is in the glass.
Book through the cooperative's own wine tourism contact rather than through this page. Times vary by flight and by season, so take them from the source on the day rather than from here.
No prices, because this site publishes no figure it has not sourced, and a tasting price is among the fastest to change. Nothing about the individual wines or vintages either: those have not been checked against the producer's own tasting notes. Both are absent rather than approximated.