What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Saumur in France
- Latitude
- 47.0°–47.3° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 52 m to 98 m
- Delimited vineyard land
- 16,416 ha
Lies within
Anjou, Cabernet d'Anjou, Rosé d'Anjou
Contains 2 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Coteaux de Saumur, Saumur-Champigny
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 Saumur must meet.
Blend rules
Saumur
- – Cabernet Franc · Main grape
- ≤ 30% cabernet-sauvignon / pineau d’Aunis · Allowed
; release from 15 January of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame
- – Cabernet Franc · Main grape
- ≤ 15% Cabernet Sauvignon · Allowed
; release from 1 June of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Saumur mousseux blanc
- – chenin / chardonnay / sauvignon / cabernet franc / cabernet-sauvignon / gamay / grolleau gris / grolleau / pineau d’Aunis / pinot noir · Main grape
- ≥ 60% Chenin Blanc · Main grape
- ≤ 10% Sauvignon Blanc · Allowed
- ≤ 10% artaban / gascon / gouget / jacquère / orbois / sacy / vidoc / voltis · Allowed
At least 9 months' ageing; release from after at least 9 months from tirage.
Blend rules
Saumur mousseux rosé
- – chenin / chardonnay / sauvignon / cabernet franc / cabernet-sauvignon / gamay / grolleau gris / grolleau / pineau d’Aunis / pinot noir · Main grape
- ≥ 60% Cabernet Franc · Main grape
- ≤ 10% Sauvignon Blanc · Allowed
- ≤ 10% artaban / gascon / gouget / jacquère / orbois / sacy / vidoc / voltis · Allowed
At least 9 months' ageing; release from after at least 9 months from tirage.
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
1 varieties · Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame
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
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 16.2 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,342 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 72 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 16.2 °C
- Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,342
- Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 398 mm
- Of 712 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 122 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 74 m; Vineyard point 2, 83 m; Vineyard point 3, 90 m; Vineyard point 4, 59 m; Vineyard point 5, 52 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. Rosé de LoireVery similarCompared with Saumur: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. VouvrayVery similarCompared with Saumur: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Cour-ChevernyVery similarCompared with Saumur: 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, 122 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: Saumur (Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine contrôlée Saumur - BO n°21 du 21 mai 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: The register lists only Saumur and Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame; 'Saumur' holds the still red rules and the still white, rosé and sparkling (white and rosé) wines, governed separately, are added. Puy-Notre-Dame needs 4500 plants/ha and bans all enrichment; for sparkling wines, sugar, yield and alcohol figures apply to the base wines and the 60% chenin / cabernet franc and 10% limits apply to the cuvée. Still whites may have up to 6 g/l sugar when acidity allows; still whites and reds are aged until 15 January and Puy-Notre-Dame until 1 June of the year after the harvest; rosés may be sold as 'primeur'.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.