What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia in Greece
- Latitude
- 35.0°–35.4° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 11 m to 495 m
- Production zone
- 103,981 ha
Covers the same area as
Χάνδακας - Candia
Contains 2 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Αρχάνες, Πεζά
Worked out from the boundaries (smallest container first). They follow whole communes, so a neighbour sharing a commune can show up here too.
Boundary drawn from whole communes, so it is a little larger than the legal zone. Boundary: Eurac Research PDO inventory (CC0). 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 Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia must meet.
Blend rules
Malvasia Χάνδακας - Candia Οίνος από λιαστά σταφύλια / Λιαστός
- – Ασύρτικο / Αθήρι / Βιδιανό / Θραψαθήρι / Λιάτικο · Main grape
- ≤ 15% Μοσχάτο άσπρο (Μοσχάτο Σπίνας) / Malvasia di Candia aromatica · Allowed
At least 24 months' ageing.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
7 varieties · Malvasia Χάνδακας - Candia Οίνος από λιαστά σταφύλια / Λιαστός
Assyrtiko, Athiri, Liatiko, Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, Moschato Aspro, Thrapsathiri, Vidiano
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
Training
Systems allowed
κυπελλοειδή (goblet); γραμμικά σχήματα (linear/cordon)
Permitted
Irrigation
Not allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 22.7 °C, very hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 2,712 growing degree days (Winkler V).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 211 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 22.7 °C
- Very hot · above 21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 2,712
- Region V: 2,222 and over degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 126 mm
- Of 429 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 54 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 269 m; Vineyard point 2, 244 m; Vineyard point 3, 334 m; Vineyard point 4, 189 m; Vineyard point 5, 17 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. Valle de la OrotavaVery similarCompared with Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia: same season warmth, drier (−17 mm).
2. LebrijaVery similarCompared with Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia: −0.3 °C in the growing season, wetter (+77 mm).
3. Malvasia ΣητείαςVery similarCompared with Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia: −0.3 °C in the growing season, drier (−77 mm).
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, 54 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
- 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
- Product specification: Malvasia Χάνδακας-Candia (Τροποποιημένη Προδιαγραφή ΠΟΠ Malvasia Χανδακας Candia.doc) · National authority, as filed in the EU register (eAmbrosia) · Official document
- 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: Two sweet wines from sun-dried grapes: Liastos and a liqueur wine fortified with wine alcohol or grape/raisin distillates added by 31 May after harvest. Must sugar at least 220 g/l before drying and 320 g/l after; natural strength 13.0 % vol. before drying and 18.8 % after. The Liastos minimum sugar is printed as '80.0 mg/L' (evidently g/l) and is not recorded. At least 24 months' oxidative ageing in oak, all within the zone; optional ageing statements of 4, 8, 12, 16… years; bottling year must be labelled. Moschato Spinas and Malvasia di Candia aromatica together at most 15 %; vines over four years old; the two wine types may not be blended; no colourings.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.