Vinous

PDO · Appellation profile

Salzburg

715,893 haProduction zone
10Wines in the rules
14.1 °CGrowing season · cool
IaWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.

The source gives no colour for 1 wine category here, so the colours below are incomplete.

Where it is

Salzburg in Austria

Latitude
46.9°–48.0° N
Vineyard altitude
441 m to 527 m
Production zone
715,893 ha

Boundary drawn from whole communes, so it is a little larger than the legal zone. Boundary: Eurac Research PDO inventory (CC0). Country outlines: Natural Earth. Dots on the zone map are the vineyard points used for climate.

Showing every colour The colour filter changes the rules and grapes. Climate, vintages and soils describe the vineyards, so they stay the same.

01 · What the law says

The rules

Limits on grapes, yields, ripeness and ageing that every wine labelled Salzburg must meet.

10 wines in the rules, all colours.
WineMax yield
t/ha
Must weight
min.
Grape ripeness
min. % pot. alc.
Actual alc.
min. %
Acidity
min. g/l
Salzburg (quality sparkling wine) 10––––
Salzburg (wine) 1015 °KMW9.594
Salzburg Kabinett 1017 °KMW11.194
Salzburg Spätlese 1019 °KMW12.854
Salzburg Auslese 1021 °KMW14.554
Salzburg Beerenauslese 1025 °KMW17.954
Salzburg Ausbruch 1027 °KMW19.754
Salzburg Trockenbeerenauslese 1030 °KMW2254
Salzburg Eiswein 1025 °KMW17.954
Salzburg Strohwein 1025 °KMW17.954

From the official production rules (EU single document, Official Journal). Hover a figure to see the clause it comes from. A dash means the rules set no figure, or it is not captured yet.

Other varieties allowed

Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.

29 varieties · Salzburg (quality sparkling wine), Salzburg (wine)

Blauburger, Blauer Burgunder, Blauer Portugieser, Blaufränkisch, Bouvier, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Frühroter Veltliner, Furmint, Goldburger, Grauer Burgunder, Grüner Veltliner, Jubiläumsrebe, Merlot, Muller Thurgau, Muskat Ottonel, Neuburger, Riesling, Roesler, Rotgipfler, Ráthay, Sankt Laurent, Sauvignon Blanc, Scheurebe, Syrah, Traminer, Welschriesling, Zierfandler

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 14.1 °C, cool on Gregory Jones's scale, with 961 growing degree days (Winkler Ia).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 474 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
-1.5° 107 Jan -0.2° 97 Feb 3.9° 127 Mar 8.6° 110 Apr 13.3° 176 May 16.8° 189 Jun 18.5° 191 Jul 18.3° 178 Aug 13.9° 149 Sep 9.3° 113 Oct 3.8° 102 Nov -0.5° 112 Dec
Growing-season temperature
14.1 °C
Cool · 13–15 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
961
Region Ia: under 1,111 degree days
Growing-season rain
1,105 mm
Of 1,652 mm a year
Harvest rain
262 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 457 m; Vineyard point 2, 527 m; Vineyard point 3, 500 m; Vineyard point 4, 443 m; Vineyard point 5, 441 m), moved to each point's height from the model's terrain. Indices that need daily data are not captured yet. How the climate figures are made.

Closest climates in the database

Picked by the data, not by hand: the profiles nearest on season warmth (counted twice), degree days, rain, ripening-month nights and day–night range. Neighbours within 30 km are left out, as they share the same weather.

1. VorarlbergVery similarCompared with Salzburg: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. KärntenVery similarCompared with Salzburg: same season warmth, drier (−168 mm).
3. TirolVery similarCompared with Salzburg: −0.7 °C in the growing season, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Salzburg
14.1 °C
Vorarlberg
14.2 °C
Kärnten
13.8 °C
Tirol
13.4 °C

Growing degree days

Salzburg
961
Vorarlberg
976
Kärnten
917
Tirol
845

Growing-season rain

Salzburg
1,105 mm
Vorarlberg
1,145 mm
Kärnten
937 mm
Tirol
1,131 mm

03 · Year by year

35 vintages

Each column is one growing season: heat above or below the 1991–2020 average, and rain at harvest. Pick a year for the details.

Warmer than averageCooler than averageHarvest rain (Sep–Oct)Average harvest rain, 262 mm
2025
Growing-season temp.
Growing degree days
Harvest rain
Growing-season rain
September nights
Hot days and frosts

Seasons are labelled by harvest year (April–October). Year-to-year changes from ERA5-Land; tested against station records in Alto Adige (r = 0.94 for season temperature at Bolzano). Rain varies more locally, so treat single-season rain with some caution. Vintage ratings, harvest dates and frost or hail events have places in the data model but are not loaded yet.

04 · Where the numbers come from

Sources

  1. A geospatial inventory of regulatory information for wine protected designations of origin in Europe · Candiago et al., Scientific Data 9, 394 (2022); Eurac Research · CC0
  2. ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
  3. OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
  4. Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
  5. Single document: Salzburg (Official Journal C 295, 7.9.2020; and the product specification 'Produktspezifikation Salzburg.pdf' from the EU register) · European Union, Official Journal (C series) · EU law (Commission reuse policy)
  6. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: The single document gives no analytical limits: the section 4 table is empty and the 'Salzburg' wines (mainly Qualitätswein, also Kabinett, Spätlese and other Prädikat levels) follow the national product specification. Treatment with potassium sorbate and dimethyl dicarbonate is excluded; enrichment and other specific practices are left to the product specification; marketing needs an official quality check number (Staatliche Prüfnummer). The designation is said not to be used for quality sparkling wine in practice. Listed varieties include Roter Veltliner, St. Laurent, Müller-Thurgau, Sylvaner, Blauer Burgunder, Chardonnay, Merlot and Weißer Riesling. The national product specification (2011) adds the Austrian quality levels with their own limits: Qualitätswein 15 °KMW (9.5 % vol), enrichment up to 2 % vol (2.5 % in poor years) and sweetening up to 15 g/l; Kabinett 17 °KMW; Spätlese 19; Auslese 21; Beerenauslese and Eiswein 25; Ausbruch 27; Trockenbeerenauslese 30; Strohwein/Schilfwein 25 °KMW after at least three months' drying on straw or reeds (30 °KMW allows pressing after two). Prädikat wines may not be enriched or sweetened, and bottled Spätlese may not be sold before 1 January, higher levels before 1 May, after the harvest. The specification's maximum yield of 9,000 kg grapes or 6,750 l wine per hectare contradicts the 10 t/ha kept from the single document.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.