Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim

1,947 haProduction zone
2Wines in the rules
15.6 °CGrowing season · intermediate
IbWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

The only colour the rules allow.

100% White

Where it is

Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim in France

Latitude
48.2°–48.2° N
Vineyard altitude
199 m to 274 m
Delimited vineyard land
34 ha

Lies within
Alsace, Crémant d'Alsace

Worked out from the boundaries (smallest container first). Uses the delimited parcels where INAO publishes them.

The delimited vineyard parcels themselves, so the shape is patchy: only land within them may grow the wine. Boundary: INAO parcel delimitation (Licence Ouverte); nearby parcels drawn as one block, with less detail for larger appellations. 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 Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim must meet.

2 wines in the rules.
WineMain grape(s)Max yield
t/ha
Max wine
hl/ha
Yield ceiling
hl/ha
Grape sugar
min. g/l
Grape ripeness
min. % pot. alc.
Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Vendanges Tardives gewurztraminer / pinot gris / riesling, Riesling8.5506024414.5
Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles gewurztraminer / pinot gris / riesling, Riesling8.5404827616.4

From the official production rules (cahier des charges). Hover a figure to see the clause it comes from. A dash means the rules set no figure, or it is not captured yet.

Blend rules

Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Vendanges Tardives

  • – gewurztraminer / pinot gris / riesling · Main grape
  • 50–70% Riesling · Main grape
  • 10–25% gewurztraminer / pinot gris G (each) · Allowed
  • ≤ 10% muscat à petits grains blancs / muscat à petits grains roses / muscat ottonel · Allowed

; release from 1 June of the second year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles

  • – gewurztraminer / pinot gris / riesling · Main grape
  • 50–70% Riesling · Main grape
  • 10–25% gewurztraminer / pinot gris G (each) · Allowed
  • ≤ 10% muscat à petits grains blancs / muscat à petits grains roses / muscat ottonel · Allowed

; release from 1 June of the second year after the harvest.

Other varieties allowed

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

8 varieties · Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Vendanges Tardives, Alsace Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles

Chasselas, Gewürztraminer, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Muscat Ottonel, Muscat à Petits Grains Roses, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

4,500
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
taille Guyot simple; taille Guyot double
Prohibited
Irrigation
Not allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 15.6 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,221 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 247 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
2.0° 81 Jan 2.7° 73 Feb 6.3° 78 Mar 10.3° 76 Apr 14.4° 107 May 18.0° 104 Jun 20.0° 106 Jul 19.8° 103 Aug 15.6° 85 Sep 11.1° 90 Oct 6.0° 83 Nov 2.8° 97 Dec
Growing-season temperature
15.6 °C
Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,221
Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
Growing-season rain
670 mm
Of 1,082 mm a year
Harvest rain
174 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 224 m; Vineyard point 2, 290 m; Vineyard point 3, 197 m; Vineyard point 4, 260 m; Vineyard point 5, 265 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. EstaingVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. MarcillacVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Alsace grand cru PfingstbergVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim
15.6 °C
Estaing
15.6 °C
Marcillac
15.5 °C
Alsace grand cru Pfingstberg
15.5 °C

Growing degree days

Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim
1,221
Estaing
1,209
Marcillac
1,205
Alsace grand cru Pfingstberg
1,201

Growing-season rain

Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim
670 mm
Estaing
665 mm
Marcillac
657 mm
Alsace grand cru Pfingstberg
680 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, 174 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. Quality wines in Italy and France: a dataset of PDO specifications · figshare 25393261 · CC BY 4.0
  3. ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
  4. OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
  5. Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
  6. Cahier des charges: Alsace grand cru Altenberg de Bergheim (Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée Alsace grand cru, homologué par l'arrêté du 4 juillet 2025 (AGRT2516557A) - BO n°29 du 17 juillet 2025) · Ministère de l'Agriculture (Bulletin officiel), as linked by INAO · Official act
  7. Délimitation parcellaire des AOC viticoles de l'INAO · Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO), via data.gouv.fr · Licence Ouverte / Open Licence (Etalab)
  8. Appellation nesting worked out from boundaries (pipeline/build_nesting.py) · Vinous, from the Eurac PDO boundaries · CC0 (source data)
  9. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Shared cahier des charges for all 51 Alsace grand cru appellations; the register lists only the vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles wines here. Ripeness minima recorded are those for riesling and muscat (244 g/l and 14.5% for vendanges tardives, 276 g/l and 16.4% for sélection de grains nobles); gewurztraminer and pinot gris need 270 g/l and 16% (vendanges tardives) or 306 g/l and 18.2% (sélection de grains nobles). No enrichment; young vines qualify only from the 9th year after planting; hand harvesting; maximum 18 buds per vine; total production capped at 77 hl/ha; élevage until at least 1 June of the second year after the harvest; wood chips, continuous presses and centrifugal pumps banned; 'Vin du Rhin' (flûte) bottles required. Altenberg de Bergheim wines come from a single variety (gewurztraminer, pinot gris or riesling) or a blend led by riesling (50–70% of the holding's vines, gewurztraminer and pinot gris 10–25% each, accessory varieties at most 10%, accessories only from vines planted before 26 March 2005); blends must contain gewurztraminer, pinot gris and riesling. The accessory chasselas, pinot blanc and pinot noir are not among the varieties allowed for vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles. Vines planted from 26 March 2005 need at least 5500 vines/ha.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.