What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Crémant de Loire in France
- Latitude
- 46.8°–47.8° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 46 m to 110 m
- Delimited vineyard land
- 77,267 ha
Covers the same area as
Rosé de Loire
Contains 19 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Anjou Villages, Anjou Villages Brissac, Bonnezeaux, Bourgueil, Cheverny, Chinon, Coteaux de l'Aubance, Coteaux de Saumur, Coteaux du Layon, Cour-Cheverny, Montlouis-sur-Loire, Quarts de Chaume, Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Saumur-Champigny, Savennières, Savennières Coulée de Serrant, Savennières Roche aux Moines, Touraine, Vouvray
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 Crémant de Loire must meet.
Blend rules
Crémant de Loire Anjou
- – chardonnay / chenin / orbois · Main grape
- – cabernet franc / cabernet-sauvignon / grolleau / grolleau gris / pineau d’Aunis / pinot noir · Main grape
- ≤ 30% cabernet-sauvignon / pineau d’Aunis · Allowed
- ≤ 10% variétés d’intérêt à fin d’adaptation (artaban, gascon, gouget, jacquère, sacy, vidoc, voltis B) · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing; release from 12 months after tirage.
Blend rules
Crémant de Loire Cheverny
- – chardonnay / chenin / orbois · Main grape
- – cabernet franc / cabernet-sauvignon / grolleau / grolleau gris / pineau d’Aunis / pinot noir · Main grape
- ≤ 30% cabernet-sauvignon / pineau d’Aunis · Allowed
- ≤ 10% variétés d’intérêt à fin d’adaptation (artaban, gascon, gouget, jacquère, sacy, vidoc, voltis B) · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing; release from 12 months after tirage.
Blend rules
Crémant de Loire Touraine
- – chardonnay / chenin / orbois · Main grape
- – cabernet franc / cabernet-sauvignon / grolleau / grolleau gris / pineau d’Aunis / pinot noir · Main grape
- ≤ 30% cabernet-sauvignon / pineau d’Aunis · Allowed
- ≤ 10% variétés d’intérêt à fin d’adaptation (artaban, gascon, gouget, jacquère, sacy, vidoc, voltis B) · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing; release from 12 months after tirage.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
6 varieties · 9 wines
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grolleau, Grolleau Gris, Pineau d'Aunis, Pinot Noir
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
4,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
taille courte; taille longue; taille mixte
Prohibited
Irrigation
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 16.4 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,364 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 72 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 16.4 °C
- Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,364
- Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 415 mm
- Of 746 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 127 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 36 m; Vineyard point 2, 42 m; Vineyard point 3, 93 m; Vineyard point 4, 120 m; Vineyard point 5, 67 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. Montlouis-sur-LoireVery similarCompared with Crémant de Loire: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. TouraineVery similarCompared with Crémant de Loire: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Haut-PoitouVery similarCompared with Crémant de Loire: same season warmth, similar rain.
Growing-season temperature
Growing degree days
Growing-season rain
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
- 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
- Quality wines in Italy and France: a dataset of PDO specifications · figshare 25393261 · CC BY 4.0
- ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
- OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
- Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
- Cahier des charges: Crémant de Loire (Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée Crémant de Loire - BO n°25 du 18 juin 2026) · Ministère de l'Agriculture (Bulletin officiel), as linked by INAO · Official act
- 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)
- Appellation nesting worked out from boundaries (pipeline/build_nesting.py) · Vinous, from the Eurac PDO boundaries · CC0 (source data)
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: White and rosé sparkling wines; the register names are the Anjou, Cheverny and Touraine parts of the zone. Minimum planting density is 4000 vines/ha in the Anjou area (3300 allowed with extra trellising) but 4500 vines/ha in the Touraine and Cheverny areas. Hand harvesting only, max 100 l of must per 150 kg of grapes; base wines max 11.6% total alcohol after enrichment and max 24 g/l sugars (5 g/l if enriched); adaptation varieties max 5% of plantings (20% for holdings under 3 ha).
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.