What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Πιτσιλιά in Cyprus
- Latitude
- 34.8°–35.0° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 762 m to 1,338 m
- Production zone
- 35,448 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.
01 · What the law says
The rules
Limits on grapes, yields, ripeness and ageing that every wine labelled Πιτσιλιά must meet.
Blend rules
Πιτσιλιά λευκός οίνος
- ≥ 30% recommended variety with Μαύρο (alternative blend) · Allowed
- – recommended and local authorised red varieties · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
18 varieties ·
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Canella, Chardonnay, Giannoudhi, Maratheftiko, Mataro, Mavro, Merlot, Morocanella, Promara, Riesling Italian, Riesling Rhine, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Syrah, Vlouriko, Xinisteri
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
2,200
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
low goblet (χαμηλό κυπελλοειδές); linear (γραμμικό σχήμα)
Permitted, with limits
Irrigation
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 20.6 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 2,269 growing degree days (Winkler V).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 1,024 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 20.6 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 2,269
- Region V: 2,222 and over degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 126 mm
- Of 463 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 45 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 1,299 m; Vineyard point 2, 1,127 m; Vineyard point 3, 658 m; Vineyard point 4, 707 m; Vineyard point 5, 1,327 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.
Lower confidence:Monthly reanalysis in complex terrain (height corrections up to 2.9 °C); absolute values may be several degrees out, year-to-year changes are more reliable.
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. Gran CanariaVery similarCompared with Πιτσιλιά: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Ycoden-Daute-IsoraVery similarCompared with Πιτσιλιά: same season warmth, drier (−49 mm).
3. El VicarioVery similarCompared with Πιτσιλιά: same season warmth, wetter (+84 mm).
Growing-season temperature
Growing degree days
Growing-season rain
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, 45 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
- 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
- ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
- OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
- Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
- Product specification: Πιτσιλιά (706_2004.pdf) · National authority, as filed in the EU register (eAmbrosia) · Official document
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Source is the scanned 2004 Cypriot order 706/2004, which covers all four wine regions (Laona Akama, Vouni Panagias-Ampelitis, Pitsilia, Krasochoria Lemesou) in one text; the OCR has lost many words and figures, including the minimum natural alcohol for red and white wine and several variety names and shares. Wines must come from vineyards at least five years old and spend at least six months maturing in bottle; red Maratheftiko must also spend at least six months in oak barrels of up to 225 litres (no more than 3 years old). Annex II gives maximum yields of 52 and 42 hl/ha by variety group (column headings lost; local varieties such as Mavro, Kanella, Giannoudhi in the 52 column, international varieties in the 42 column), and 45 or 36 hl/ha for two sub-regions of Annex I whose identifying letters are illegible, so yields are not recorded per product. The red-wine blend percentages for Pitsilia and Krasochoria Lemesou are illegible apart from the second variety's share above 30 %.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.