Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Bourgueil

20,205 haProduction zone
3Wines in the rules
16.5 °CGrowing season · intermediate
IbWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Bourgueil in France

Latitude
47.2°–47.4° N
Vineyard altitude
28 m to 89 m
Delimited vineyard land
3,437 ha

Lies within
Touraine, Rosé de Loire, Crémant de Loire

Contains 1 appellation (outlined on the zone map)
Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil

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.

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 Bourgueil must meet.

3 wines in the rules, all colours.
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.
Acidity
min. g/l
Sugar
max. g/l
Bourgueil Cabernet Franc–65––––––
Bourgueil Cabernet Franc8.5556518010.513–2
Bourgueil rosé Cabernet Franc8.5556517110.5133.54

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

Bourgueil

  • – Cabernet Franc · Main grape
  • ≤ 10% Cabernet Sauvignon · Allowed

Blend rules

Bourgueil rosé

  • – Cabernet Franc · Main grape
  • ≤ 10% Cabernet Sauvignon · Allowed

Other varieties allowed

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

1 varieties · Bourgueil, Bourgueil, Bourgueil rosé

Cabernet Sauvignon

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

4,500
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
taille Guyot simple; taille à 2 demi-baguettes; cordon de Royat
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 16.5 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,386 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 43 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
5.5° 68 Jan 5.8° 58 Feb 8.5° 56 Mar 11.2° 62 Apr 14.8° 71 May 18.2° 53 Jun 20.2° 49 Jul 20.3° 51 Aug 17.1° 53 Sep 13.3° 75 Oct 8.8° 72 Nov 6.0° 77 Dec
Growing-season temperature
16.5 °C
Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,386
Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
Growing-season rain
413 mm
Of 744 mm a year
Harvest rain
127 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 44 m; Vineyard point 2, 34 m; Vineyard point 3, 28 m; Vineyard point 4, 50 m; Vineyard point 5, 61 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. QuincyVery similarCompared with Bourgueil: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Távora-VarosaVery similarCompared with Bourgueil: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Pago de OtazuVery similarCompared with Bourgueil: same season warmth, wetter (+48 mm).

Growing-season temperature

Bourgueil
16.5 °C
Quincy
16.4 °C
Távora-Varosa
16.4 °C
Pago de Otazu
16.5 °C

Growing degree days

Bourgueil
1,386
Quincy
1,383
Távora-Varosa
1,382
Pago de Otazu
1,391

Growing-season rain

Bourgueil
413 mm
Quincy
444 mm
Távora-Varosa
376 mm
Pago de Otazu
460 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, 127 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: Bourgueil (Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine contrôlée Bourgueil, homologué par arrêté du 29 novembre 2023 (AGRT2329447A) - BO n°50 du 14 décembre 2023) · 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: The register lists one name; products are split by colour because the rules differ. The cabernet-sauvignon limit applies to the holding's plantings; wines may not be from cabernet-sauvignon alone and cabernet franc must be the majority. Rosé total acidity must exceed 3.5 g/l (tartaric). No irrigation rule is stated in the text; the name may carry 'Val de Loire'.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.