Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Cahors

68,374 haProduction zone
1Wine in the rules
17.3 °CGrowing season · warm
IIWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

The only colour the rules allow.

100% Red

Where it is

Cahors in France

Latitude
44.3°–44.6° N
Vineyard altitude
85 m to 294 m
Delimited vineyard land
21,108 ha

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 Cahors must meet.

1 wine in the rules.
WineMain grape(s)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
Cahors 70% Malbec506019311.513.54

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

Cahors

  • ≥ 70% Malbec · Main grape
  • – merlot / tannat · Allowed

; release from 15 March of the 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.

2 varieties · Cahors

Merlot, Tannat

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

4,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
gobelet; éventail; cordon de Royat; taille Guyot simple; taille Guyot double
Permitted
Irrigation
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 17.3 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,571 growing degree days (Winkler II).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 213 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
5.3° 74 Jan 5.9° 58 Feb 9.0° 65 Mar 11.7° 89 Apr 15.5° 88 May 19.1° 73 Jun 21.4° 59 Jul 21.5° 70 Aug 18.0° 67 Sep 14.1° 77 Oct 9.0° 82 Nov 6.0° 78 Dec
Growing-season temperature
17.3 °C
Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,571
Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
Growing-season rain
523 mm
Of 881 mm a year
Harvest rain
144 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 205 m; Vineyard point 2, 149 m; Vineyard point 3, 155 m; Vineyard point 4, 290 m; Vineyard point 5, 267 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. ХисаряVery similarCompared with Cahors: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. MinişVery similarCompared with Cahors: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Gaillac premières côtesVery similarCompared with Cahors: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Cahors
17.3 °C
Хисаря
17.3 °C
Miniş
17.3 °C
Gaillac premières côtes
17.3 °C

Growing degree days

Cahors
1,571
Хисаря
1,569
Miniş
1,567
Gaillac premières côtes
1,559

Growing-season rain

Cahors
523 mm
Хисаря
517 mm
Miniş
546 mm
Gaillac premières côtes
497 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, 144 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: Cahors (Cahier des charges relatifs aux appellations d’origines contrôlées suivantes : Saumur et Cabernet de Saumur, Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux, Coteaux du Giennois, Côte Rôti) · 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. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Maximum average load per parcel is 8,500 kg/ha (written '8 500', so not recorded as a checked value); irrigated parcels 6,500 kg/ha. Residual sugar is limited to 3 g/l for wines of up to 14% natural alcohol and 4 g/l above that. Cot N must also be at least 70% of the holding's plantings; destemming is compulsory, malic acid at most 0.4 g/l, élevage until at least 1 March after the harvest and minimum colour intensity is set.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.