Gaillac

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Gaillac in France

Latitude: 43.7°–44.1° N
Vineyard altitude: 134 m to 297 m
Delimited vineyard land: 22,925 ha

Contains 1 appellation (outlined on the zone map)
Gaillac premières côtes

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 Gaillac must meet.

9 wines in the rules, all colours.
Wine	Main grape(s)	Max yield t/ha	Max wine hl/ha	Yield ceiling hl/ha	Grape sugar min. g/l	Grape ripeness min. % pot. alc.	Actual alc. min. %	After enrichment max. % alc.	Sugar max. g/l	In bottle min. months	On lees min. months
Gaillac Méthode Ancestrale	100% mauzac / mauzac rose	10.5	60	72	153	9	8	13	–	–	2
Gaillac (white)	Len de L'El, Mauzac, Mauzac Rose +1	–	72	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gaillac	Duras, Fer, Prunelard +1	–	66	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gaillac Primeur	Gamay	–	66	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gaillac	Duras, Fer, Prunelard +1	–	66	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gaillac Doux	100% mauzac / mauzac rose	9.5	45	54	178	11	7	14	–	–	2
Gaillac	len de l’el / mauzac / mauzac rose / muscadelle, Muscadelle	10.5	60	72	153	9	–	13	50	–	9
Gaillac Primeur	len de l’el / mauzac / mauzac rose / muscadelle, Muscadelle	10.5	60	72	170	10.5	–	13	4	–	–
Gaillac Vendanges Tardives	50% len de l’el / ondenc	7	25	25	280	17	11	–	–	2	–

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

≥ 70% len de l’el / mauzac / mauzac rose / muscadelle · Main grape
≤ 70% Muscadelle · Main grape
– ondenc / sauvignon · Allowed
≤ 10% alvarinho / felen / furmint / verdanel · Allowed

; release from after 9 months on lees and not before 1 September of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Gaillac Primeur

≥ 70% len de l’el / mauzac / mauzac rose / muscadelle · Main grape
≤ 70% Muscadelle · Main grape
– ondenc / sauvignon · Allowed
≤ 10% alvarinho / felen / furmint / verdanel · Allowed

Blend rules

Gaillac Vendanges Tardives

≥ 50% len de l’el / ondenc · Main grape
≤ 20% mauzac / mauzac rose / muscadelle · 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.

2 varieties · 4 wines

Ondenc, Sauvignon Blanc

4 varieties · Gaillac, Gaillac

Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Merlot

3 varieties · Gaillac Vendanges Tardives

Mauzac, Mauzac Rose, Muscadelle

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

4,000

Vines per hectare, minimum

Training

Systems allowed

gobelet; cordon de Royat; taille Guyot simple; taille Guyot double (tirette)

Permitted, with limits

Irrigation

Allowed

Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 17.2 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,549 growing degree days (Winkler II).

The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 241 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season

Growing-season temperature: 17.2 °C; Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days: 1,549; Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
Growing-season rain: 514 mm; Of 886 mm a year
Harvest rain: 145 mm; September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 176 m; Vineyard point 2, 296 m; Vineyard point 3, 176 m; Vineyard point 4, 314 m; Vineyard point 5, 242 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. BalatonVery similarCompared with Gaillac: same season warmth, similar rain.

2. ХисаряVery similarCompared with Gaillac: same season warmth, similar rain.

3. CahorsVery similarCompared with Gaillac: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Gaillac

17.2 °C

Balaton

17.2 °C

Хисаря

17.3 °C

Cahors

17.3 °C

Growing degree days

Gaillac

1,549

Balaton

1,548

Хисаря

1,569

Cahors

1,571

Growing-season rain

Gaillac

514 mm

Balaton

508 mm

Хисаря

517 mm

Cahors

523 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, 145 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: Gaillac (Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée Gaillac - BO n°37 du 11 septembre 2025) · 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: Register names covering several colours or types are split into products ('Gaillac' white, red, rosé and traditional-method sparkling; 'Gaillac Doux' still white and méthode ancestrale sparkling; 'Gaillac Primeur' red and white, the white having no separate rules). Encépagement shares (≥50% principal whites, ≥70% principal reds, ≥40% duras/fer/prunelard) apply to the holding's vineyard, blend shares to the wine; holdings under 3 ha may use up to 20% adaptation varieties. Irrigated parcels have lower maximum loads (6–8 t/ha); irrigation and any enrichment are prohibited for vendanges tardives, which must be hand-harvested by successive pickings from overripe or nobly rotted grapes. Reds with natural alcohol above 14% may have up to 4 g/l sugar; primeur reds are made by carbonic or semi-carbonic maceration; release of whites, rosés, primeur and méthode ancestrale follows the general D.645-17 rule.
National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.