Vinous

DOCa · Appellation profile

Priorat / Priorato

20,384 haProduction zone
7Wines in the rules
19.2 °CGrowing season · hot
IVWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Priorat in Spain

Latitude
41.1°–41.3° N
Vineyard altitude
204 m to 646 m
Production zone
20,384 ha

Lies within
Cataluña

Worked out from the boundaries (smallest container first). They follow whole communes, so a neighbour sharing a commune can show up here too.

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 Priorat must meet.

7 wines in the rules, all colours.
WineMain grape(s)Max yield
t/ha
With named unit
t/ha
Max wine
hl/ha
Wine from grapes
max. %
Grape ripeness
min. % pot. alc.
Actual alc.
min. %
Acidity
min. g/l
Priorat (wine of overripe grapes) Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó–––651513.53.5
Priorat white wines Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó87526512133.5
Priorat rosé wines Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó–––65–133.5
Priorat white vinos de finca Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó6.8–446512133.5
Priorat red wines Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó65396512.513.53.5
Priorat red vinos de finca Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó5.1–336512.513.53.5
Priorat liqueur wine (rancio wine, sweet liqueur wine, white and red mistela wine, naturally sweet wine) Grenache, Mazuela - Cariñena, Mazuela - Samsó–––65–153.5

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.

19 varieties · Priorat (wine of overripe grapes), Priorat liqueur wine (rancio wine, sweet liqueur wine, white and red mistela wine, naturally sweet wine)

Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, Garnacha Blanca, Garnacha Peluda, Grenache, Macabeo, Mazuela, Merlot, Moscatel de Alejandria, Moscatel de Grano Menudo, Pedro Ximénez, Picapoll Blanco, Picapoll Negro, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Tempranillo, Viognier, Xarello

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

2,500
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
traditional goblet; any other method that ensures the best quality
Permitted
Irrigation

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 19.2 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,960 growing degree days (Winkler IV).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 411 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
6.4° 37 Jan 7.5° 27 Feb 10.5° 38 Mar 12.9° 56 Apr 16.7° 53 May 21.1° 29 Jun 23.9° 19 Jul 23.8° 37 Aug 19.9° 62 Sep 15.9° 61 Oct 10.4° 46 Nov 7.1° 34 Dec
Growing-season temperature
19.2 °C
Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,960
Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
Growing-season rain
317 mm
Of 498 mm a year
Harvest rain
123 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 414 m; Vineyard point 2, 381 m; Vineyard point 3, 507 m; Vineyard point 4, 668 m; Vineyard point 5, 85 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. СакарVery similarCompared with Priorat: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. ЛюбимецVery similarCompared with Priorat: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. GravinaVery similarCompared with Priorat: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Priorat
19.2 °C
Сакар
19.2 °C
Любимец
19.1 °C
Gravina
19.3 °C

Growing degree days

Priorat
1,960
Сакар
1,967
Любимец
1,949
Gravina
1,989

Growing-season rain

Priorat
317 mm
Сакар
344 mm
Любимец
340 mm
Gravina
320 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, 123 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: Priorat (Official Journal C 341, 6.9.2022; and the technical file 'Ares(2014)2157910' from the EU register) · European Union, Official Journal (C series) · EU law (Commission reuse policy)
  6. Appellation nesting worked out from boundaries (pipeline/build_nesting.py) · Vinous, from the Eurac PDO boundaries · CC0 (source data)
  7. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Also registered as 'Priorato' (DOCa). Section 7 lists only Garnacha Tinta, Mazuela – Cariñena and Mazuela – Samsó, without shares; smaller-unit wines need at least 60 % (90 % for 'gran viña clasificada') of Mazuela, Garnacha Tinta, Garnacha Blanca or Garnacha Peluda. The reduced yield recorded is for 'vila' wines; 'paraje' and 'viña clasificada' allow 4,000 kg/ha red and 6,000 kg/ha white, 'gran viña clasificada' 3,000 and 4,000 kg/ha; high-density parcels add 0.5 kg per vine above 5,000 vines/ha. Vineyards planted from 2013 need at least 3,000 vines/ha (max 9,000); rosé vinos de finca share the white and rosé limits. Overripe-grape wines need more than 15 % natural strength without enrichment; wines must be bottled in the area. The older national technical file allows training 'tradicional en vaso o emparrado' (goblet or trellis) rather than the training systems recorded here; the recorded list is kept.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.