What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Bierzo in Spain
- Latitude
- 42.3°–42.8° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 472 m to 702 m
- Production zone
- 237,038 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 Bierzo must meet.
Blend rules
Bierzo clarete wines
- 40–60% authorised red varieties · Main grape
- – authorised white varieties · Allowed
Blend rules
Bierzo red wines
- ≥ 85% Mencía / Garnacha Tintorera / Estaladiña / Merenzao · Main grape
- – other authorised varieties · Others allowed
Blend rules
Bierzo aged red wines
- ≥ 85% Mencía / Garnacha Tintorera / Estaladiña / Merenzao · Main grape
- – other authorised 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.
7 varieties ·
Alarije, Doña Blanca, Garnacha Tintoréra, Godello, Mencía, Merenzao, Palomino
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
Prohibited
Irrigation
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 15.4 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,188 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 691 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 15.4 °C
- Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,188
- Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 445 mm
- Of 972 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 158 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 496 m; Vineyard point 2, 919 m; Vineyard point 3, 746 m; Vineyard point 4, 494 m; Vineyard point 5, 800 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. RheingauVery similarCompared with Bierzo: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. PfalzVery similarCompared with Bierzo: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Chablis grand cruVery similarCompared with Bierzo: 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, 158 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
- Single document: Bierzo (Official Journal C 148, 05.05.2020; and the technical file 'Ares(2014)2131447' from the EU register) · European Union, Official Journal (C series) · EU law (Commission reuse policy)
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Yields are per variety: Palomino 12,000 kg/ha (88.8 hl/ha), other varieties 11,000 kg/ha (81.4 hl/ha); the 'other varieties' limit is recorded for red wines and left null for white, rosé and clarete, which may include Palomino. Grape minimum strength exceptions: Garnacha Tintorera 11 % vol, Godello 12 % vol. Aged reds may carry Crianza, Reserva or Gran Reserva but no ageing periods are given; clarete ferments with 5–10 % skins. Bottling must take place in the production area; smaller units 'Vino de Villa', 'Vino de Paraje', 'Viña Clasificada' and 'Gran Viña Clasificada' are permitted. The older Spanish technical file (Ares(2014)2131447) sets grape minimum strength at 10.5 % vol (white varieties) and 11.5 % vol (red); the lower figure is recorded for rosé and clarete, which may blend both. That file differs from values kept here: minimum actual alcohol 11 % (white, rosé) and 11.5 % vol (red), white acidity 4 g/l, a single yield of 12 000 kg/ha and 88.60 hl/ha, and at least 70 % Mencía in reds (50 % in rosés).
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.