Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Mercurey

1,926 haProduction zone
6Wines in the rules
16.2 °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

Mercurey in France

Latitude
46.8°–46.9° N
Vineyard altitude
223 m to 340 m
Delimited vineyard land
791 ha

Lies within
Bourgogne aligoté, Bourgogne, Crémant de Bourgogne, Bourgogne mousseux, Coteaux Bourguignons, Bourgogne Passe-tout-grains

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 Mercurey must meet.

6 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
Mercurey Pinot Noir–58–––––
Mercurey Premier Cru Pinot Noir–56–––––
Mercurey Pinot Noir9505818010.513.52
Mercurey Premier Cru Pinot Noir9485618911142
Mercurey blanc Chardonnay10.557641781113.53
Mercurey Premier Cru blanc Chardonnay10.5556218711.5143

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

Mercurey

  • – Pinot Noir · Main grape
  • ≤ 15% chardonnay / pinot gris · Allowed

; release from 15 April of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Mercurey Premier Cru

  • – Pinot Noir · Main grape
  • ≤ 15% chardonnay / pinot gris · Allowed

; release from 15 April of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Mercurey blanc

  • – Chardonnay · Main grape
  • ≤ 15% Pinot Grigio · Allowed

; release from 15 April of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Mercurey Premier Cru blanc

  • – Chardonnay · Main grape
  • ≤ 15% Pinot Grigio · Allowed

; release from 15 April 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 · 4 wines

Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio

1 varieties · Mercurey, Mercurey Premier Cru

Pinot Grigio

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

8,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
cordon de Royat; cordon bilatéral; gobelet (red only); éventail (red only); taille Guyot simple
Prohibited
Irrigation
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 16.2 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,326 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 267 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
3.1° 80 Jan 3.8° 67 Feb 7.2° 68 Mar 10.6° 81 Apr 14.5° 92 May 18.3° 72 Jun 20.6° 69 Jul 20.5° 70 Aug 16.4° 80 Sep 12.1° 96 Oct 6.8° 102 Nov 3.8° 91 Dec
Growing-season temperature
16.2 °C
Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,326
Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
Growing-season rain
559 mm
Of 967 mm a year
Harvest rain
176 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 268 m; Vineyard point 2, 247 m; Vineyard point 3, 263 m; Vineyard point 4, 223 m; Vineyard point 5, 334 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. Clos de VougeotVery similarCompared with Mercurey: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. VougeotVery similarCompared with Mercurey: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. MittelburgenlandVery similarCompared with Mercurey: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Mercurey
16.2 °C
Clos de Vougeot
16.1 °C
Vougeot
16.1 °C
Mittelburgenland
16.1 °C

Growing degree days

Mercurey
1,326
Clos de Vougeot
1,307
Vougeot
1,307
Mittelburgenland
1,334

Growing-season rain

Mercurey
559 mm
Clos de Vougeot
560 mm
Vougeot
560 mm
Mittelburgenland
541 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, 176 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: Mercurey (Cahier des charges relatif à l’appellation d'origine contrôlée Mercurey - BO n°37 du 11 septembre 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. 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: Products split by colour as rules differ. The 15% limit on accessory varieties (interplanted only) applies within each parcel. White wines may have 4 g/l sugars if total acidity is at least 4.13 g/l (tartaric). The 32 listed climats follow the premier cru rules but are not separate products in the register. Wood pieces prohibited; élevage at no more than 25°C.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.