Vacqueyras

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Vacqueyras in France

Latitude: 44.1°–44.2° N
Vineyard altitude: 38 m to 121 m
Delimited vineyard land: 2,073 ha

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 Vacqueyras must meet.

5 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.	After enrichment max. % alc.	Sugar max. g/l
Vacqueyras	Grenache	–	40	–	–	–	–	–
Vacqueyras	Cinsaut, Grenache, Mourvèdre +1	–	40	–	–	–	–	–
Vacqueyras	50% Grenache	6.5	36	40	216	12.5	14	3
Vacqueyras rosé	cinsaut / grenache / mourvèdre / syrah	6.5	36	40	207	12	14	3
Vacqueyras blanc	bourboulenc / clairette / grenache blanc / marsanne / roussanne / viognier	6.5	36	40	196	12	14	3

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

≥ 50% Grenache · Main grape
≥ 20% mourvèdre / syrah · Allowed
≤ 10% cinsaut / bourboulenc / brun argenté / carignan / clairette / clairette rose / counoise / grenache blanc / grenache gris / marsanne / muscardin / piquepoul noir / roussanne / terret noir / viognier · Allowed
≤ 5% white varieties (cépages blancs) · Allowed

; release from 31 January of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Vacqueyras rosé

≤ 80% cinsaut / grenache / mourvèdre / syrah · Main grape
≤ 10% bourboulenc / brun argenté / carignan / clairette / clairette rose / counoise / grenache blanc / grenache gris / marsanne / muscardin / piquepoul noir / roussanne / terret noir / viognier · Allowed

; release from 15 January 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.

17 varieties · Vacqueyras, Vacqueyras rosé, Vacqueyras blanc

Bourboulenc, Brun Argenté, Carignan, Cinsaut, Clairette, Clairette Rose, Counoise, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Marsanne, Mourvèdre, Muscardin, Piquepoul Noir, Roussanne, Syrah, Terret Noir, Viognier

14 varieties · Vacqueyras

Bourboulenc, Brun Argenté, Carignan, Clairette, Clairette Rose, Counoise, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Marsanne, Muscardin, Piquepoul Noir, Roussanne, Terret Noir, Viognier

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

Training

Systems allowed

gobelet; cordon de Royat; taille Guyot simple ou double (viognier B)

Permitted, with limits

Irrigation

Allowed

Enrichment (chaptalisation)

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 19.2 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,960 growing degree days (Winkler IV).

The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 85 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season

Growing-season temperature: 19.2 °C; Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days: 1,960; Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
Growing-season rain: 430 mm; Of 745 mm a year
Harvest rain: 181 mm; September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 82 m; Vineyard point 2, 138 m; Vineyard point 3, 31 m; Vineyard point 4, 52 m; Vineyard point 5, 121 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. Morellino di ScansanoVery similarCompared with Vacqueyras: same season warmth, similar rain.

2. Penisola SorrentinaVery similarCompared with Vacqueyras: same season warmth, similar rain.

3. Picpoul de PinetVery similarCompared with Vacqueyras: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Vacqueyras

19.2 °C

Morellino di Scansano

19.2 °C

Penisola Sorrentina

19.2 °C

Picpoul de Pinet

19.1 °C

Growing degree days

Vacqueyras

1,960

Morellino di Scansano

1,975

Penisola Sorrentina

1,962

Picpoul de Pinet

1,955

Growing-season rain

Vacqueyras

430 mm

Morellino di Scansano

434 mm

Penisola Sorrentina

455 mm

Picpoul de Pinet

432 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, 181 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: Vacqueyras (Cahier des charges de l'Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée Vacqueyras homologué par l'arrêté du 7 décembre 2020 publié au JORF du 10 décembre 2020 - BO n°50 du 10 ) · 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 'Vacqueyras'; rosé and white are added as 'Vacqueyras rosé' and 'Vacqueyras blanc'. All percentage limits apply to the holding's vineyard (reds: principal plus complementary at least 90%; the blend must be mainly grenache with mourvèdre or syrah). Grenache needs 216 g/l sugar, other black varieties 207, white 196; residual sugar may reach 4 g/l above 14% natural alcohol. Élevage until 15 January (reds) or 1 January (whites, rosés) after the harvest; wood chips prohibited.
National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.