What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Ahr in Germany
- Latitude
- 50.5°–50.6° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 111 m to 240 m
- Production zone
- 16,425 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 Ahr must meet.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
39 varieties · Ahr Sekt b.A., Ahr Qualitätsperlwein
Acolon, Bacchus, Blauer Frühburgunder, Blauer Portugieser, Blauer Zweigelt, Cabernet Cortis, Cabernet Cubin, Cabernet Dorsa, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Mitos, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Dakapo, Domina, Dornfelder, Dunkelfelder, Früher Malingre, Hegel, Huxelrebe, Johanniter, Kerner, Merlot, Muller Thurgau, Müllerrebe, Neronet, Ortega, Palas, Pinot Noir, Regent, Regner, Riesling, Rotberger, Roter Traminer, Ruländer, Saint Laurent, Saphira, Solaris, Weißer Burgunder, Würzer
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 14.6 °C, cool on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,027 growing degree days (Winkler Ia).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 180 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 14.6 °C
- Cool · 13–15 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,027
- Region Ia: under 1,111 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 516 mm
- Of 846 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 133 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 216 m; Vineyard point 2, 122 m; Vineyard point 3, 175 m; Vineyard point 4, 174 m; Vineyard point 5, 215 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 moderately complex terrain; not yet checked against a weather station.
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. Ambt DeldenVery similarCompared with Ahr: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Moselle LuxembourgeoiseVery similarCompared with Ahr: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Haspengouwse wijnVery similarCompared with Ahr: same season warmth, similar rain.
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, 133 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: Ahr (gU Ahr_111215.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: Minimum natural alcohol / must weight is the lowest by variety: Qualitätswein Riesling 6.7 % (55 °Oe), Weißburgunder, Ruländer, Frühburgunder, Müllerrebe and Spätburgunder 8.3 % (65 °Oe), Dornfelder 8.8 % (68 °Oe), others 7.5 % (60 °Oe); Kabinett red 10.6 % (80 °Oe); Spätlese other whites 11.7 % (87 °Oe), reds 11.4 % (85 °Oe); Auslese other whites 12.7 % (93 °Oe), reds 12.2 % (90 °Oe); Sekt other varieties 7.0 % (57 °Oe). The 5.5 % actual alcohol applies to 'Beerenauslese etc.' (probably also TBA and Eiswein). Qualitätsperlwein base must meet Qualitätswein minimums. Traditional bottle-fermented Sekt must spend at least 9 months on the bottle. Sweetening only with grape must; blending red and white grape products is not allowed except for Rotling. Enrichment: Qualitätswein up to 15 % vol; not Prädikatswein.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.