Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Luberon

88,296 haProduction zone
3Wines in the rules
18.5 °CGrowing season · warm
IIIWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Luberon in France

Latitude
43.7°–43.9° N
Vineyard altitude
139 m to 420 m
Delimited vineyard land
24,451 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.

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 Luberon 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.
Sugar
max. g/l
Luberon Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah–66–––––
Luberon Grenache, Mourvèdre, Syrah–66–––––
Luberon grenache / syrah, Syrah, Mourvèdre9.555661981213.53

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

Luberon

  • ≥ 60% grenache / syrah · Main grape
  • ≥ 20% Syrah · Main grape
  • – Mourvèdre · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Cinsaut · Allowed
  • ≤ 20% Carignan · Allowed
  • ≤ 20% Counoise · Allowed
  • ≤ 10% marselan · Allowed
  • ≤ 10% white varieties (bourboulenc, clairette, grenache blanc, marsanne, roussanne, ugni blanc, vermentino, viognier B) · Allowed
  • ≤ 10% variétés d'intérêt à fin d'adaptation · Allowed

Other varieties allowed

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

11 varieties · Luberon, Luberon

Bourboulenc, Carignan, Cinsaut, Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Marselan, Roussanne, Ugni Blanc, Vermentino, Viognier

2 varieties · Luberon

Ugni Blanc, Viognier

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

Training
Systems allowed
gobelet; cordon de Royat; taille Guyot simple
Permitted, with limits
Irrigation

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 18.5 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,827 growing degree days (Winkler III).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 266 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
4.6° 58 Jan 5.3° 46 Feb 8.9° 50 Mar 12.1° 74 Apr 16.4° 70 May 20.9° 43 Jun 23.8° 24 Jul 23.4° 33 Aug 18.7° 79 Sep 14.2° 94 Oct 8.7° 106 Nov 5.2° 64 Dec
Growing-season temperature
18.5 °C
Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,827
Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
Growing-season rain
416 mm
Of 739 mm a year
Harvest rain
174 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 420 m; Vineyard point 2, 126 m; Vineyard point 3, 358 m; Vineyard point 4, 202 m; Vineyard point 5, 226 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.

Lower confidence:Monthly reanalysis in moderately complex terrain; not yet checked against a weather station.

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. AlellaVery similarCompared with Luberon: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. ПловдивVery similarCompared with Luberon: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. BelletVery similarCompared with Luberon: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Luberon
18.5 °C
Alella
18.5 °C
Пловдив
18.5 °C
Bellet
18.5 °C

Growing degree days

Luberon
1,827
Alella
1,825
Пловдив
1,818
Bellet
1,823

Growing-season rain

Luberon
416 mm
Alella
424 mm
Пловдив
420 mm
Bellet
433 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, 174 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: Luberon (Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée Lubéron - BO n°17 du 24 avril 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. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Varietal proportions (except the 10% blend limit on climate-adaptation varieties) apply to the holding's vineyard for each colour; grenache and syrah must both be planted; every wine is a blend of at least 2 varieties. No minimum density in vines per hectare is given: each vine may occupy at most 2.5 m² (rows at most 2.5 m apart, vines 0.8–1.2 m apart). Red sugar minimum recorded is 198 g/l (syrah, mourvèdre, cinsaut, counoise and white grapes); other black grapes for reds need 207 g/l. Reds with natural alcohol above 14% may have 4 g/l sugar; irrigated parcels are limited to 8 t/ha (white grapes) and 7 t/ha (black); the yield cap falls to 60 hl/ha for vines with lower trellised canopy; the text gives a total alcohol limit after enrichment but no explicit enrichment rule.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.