Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr

2,123 haProduction zone
3Wines in the rules
15.7 °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 Kirchberg de Barr in France

Latitude
48.4°–48.4° N
Vineyard altitude
194 m to 313 m
Delimited vineyard land
41 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 Kirchberg de Barr must meet.

3 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.
After enrichment
max. % alc.
Sugar
max. g/l
Alsace Grand Cru Kirchberg de Barr 100% Pinot Noir7404820712152
Alsace Grand Cru Kirchberg de Barr Sélection de Grains Nobles gewurztraminer / muscat à petits grains blancs / muscat à petits grains roses / muscat ottonel / pinot gris / riesling8.5404827616.4––
Alsace Grand Cru Kirchberg de Barr Vendanges tardives gewurztraminer / muscat à petits grains blancs / muscat à petits grains roses / muscat ottonel / pinot gris / riesling8.5506024414.5––

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.

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
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 15.7 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,233 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 229 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
2.2° 79 Jan 2.9° 71 Feb 6.4° 78 Mar 10.4° 73 Apr 14.5° 100 May 18.0° 98 Jun 20.1° 103 Jul 19.9° 98 Aug 15.6° 83 Sep 11.2° 88 Oct 6.1° 83 Nov 3.0° 94 Dec
Growing-season temperature
15.7 °C
Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,233
Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
Growing-season rain
642 mm
Of 1,047 mm a year
Harvest rain
171 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 313 m; Vineyard point 2, 194 m; Vineyard point 3, 209 m; Vineyard point 4, 224 m; Vineyard point 5, 207 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. Sebeş-ApoldVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Alsace grand cru EichbergVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Alsace grand cru PfersigbergVery similarCompared with Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr
15.7 °C
Sebeş-Apold
15.6 °C
Alsace grand cru Eichberg
15.6 °C
Alsace grand cru Pfersigberg
15.6 °C

Growing degree days

Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr
1,233
Sebeş-Apold
1,223
Alsace grand cru Eichberg
1,224
Alsace grand cru Pfersigberg
1,224

Growing-season rain

Alsace grand cru Kirchberg de Barr
642 mm
Sebeş-Apold
634 mm
Alsace grand cru Eichberg
652 mm
Alsace grand cru Pfersigberg
652 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, 171 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 Kirchberg de Barr (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. White wines come from a single variety (gewurztraminer, muscat, pinot gris, riesling) or a blend of the muscats; ripeness and alcohol limits differ by variety: minimum 195 g/l and 12.5% natural alcohol for gewurztraminer and pinot gris (170 g/l, 11% for other varieties, as recorded), and maximum total alcohol after enrichment 15% for gewurztraminer and pinot gris but 14% for riesling and muscat. Vendanges tardives (not a separate register name) need 270 g/l and 16% for gewurztraminer and pinot gris (244 g/l, 14.5% for riesling and muscat, as recorded); sélection de grains nobles need 306 g/l and 18.2% for gewurztraminer and pinot gris (276 g/l, 16.4% as recorded). Vendanges tardives and sélection de grains nobles wines may not be enriched, may only use the four noble varieties, and young vines qualify only from the 9th year. Grapes must be hand-picked; maximum 18 buds per vine for whites, 14 for reds; rows at most 2 m apart; wood chips, continuous presses and centrifugal pumps are banned; wines must be bottled in 'Vin du Rhin' (flûte) bottles. Total production may not exceed 77 hl/ha. Kirchberg de Barr may also produce red wine from pinot noir (minimum density 5000 vines/ha, recorded separately as a red product); red wines may not be enriched, must complete malolactic fermentation and have at most 0.4 g/l malic acid at bottling. Minimum planting density is 4500 vines/ha for whites. Ageing (élevage) runs at least until the earliest release date; enrichment is limited to +0.5% vol. for gewurztraminer and pinot gris and +1.5% vol. for other varieties.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.