Vinous

AOC · Appellation profile

Picpoul de Pinet

16,594 haProduction zone
2Wines in the rules
19.1 °CGrowing season · hot
IVWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

The only colour the rules allow.

100% White

Where it is

Picpoul de Pinet in France

Latitude
43.3°–43.5° N
Vineyard altitude
4 m to 72 m
Delimited vineyard land
2,388 ha

Lies within
Languedoc

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 Picpoul de Pinet must meet.

2 wines in the rules.
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.
Sugar
max. g/l
Picpoul de Pinet Piquepoul Blanc–66––––
Picpoul de Pinet 100% piquepoul106672192123

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.

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

4,400
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
taille courte à coursons
Permitted
Irrigation

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 19.1 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,955 growing degree days (Winkler IV).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 23 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
7.9° 76 Jan 8.1° 51 Feb 10.7° 56 Mar 13.2° 68 Apr 16.8° 58 May 21.0° 29 Jun 23.6° 17 Jul 23.5° 29 Aug 19.8° 99 Sep 16.0° 133 Oct 11.5° 112 Nov 8.7° 74 Dec
Growing-season temperature
19.1 °C
Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,955
Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
Growing-season rain
432 mm
Of 801 mm a year
Harvest rain
231 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 46 m; Vineyard point 2, 34 m; Vineyard point 3, 17 m; Vineyard point 4, 4 m; Vineyard point 5, 13 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. SegarceaVery similarCompared with Picpoul de Pinet: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. AbruzzoVery similarCompared with Picpoul de Pinet: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. ControguerraVery similarCompared with Picpoul de Pinet: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Picpoul de Pinet
19.1 °C
Segarcea
19.1 °C
Abruzzo
19.1 °C
Controguerra
19.1 °C

Growing degree days

Picpoul de Pinet
1,955
Segarcea
1,950
Abruzzo
1,951
Controguerra
1,940

Growing-season rain

Picpoul de Pinet
432 mm
Segarcea
431 mm
Abruzzo
445 mm
Controguerra
430 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, 231 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: Picpoul de Pinet (Cahier des charges de l’appellation d’origine protégée Picpoul de Pinet, homologué par arrêté du 09 décembre 2024 (AGRT2428438A) - BO n°51 du 19 décembre 2024) · 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: Irrigated parcels are limited to 8,500 kg/ha. Wines are made by direct pressing, with or without prior whole-bunch maceration under inert gas; wood chips, oenological charcoal and continuous presses are prohibited; release date follows the general rule (article D. 645-17) rather than a fixed date.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.