What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Μονεμβασία- Malvasia in Greece
- Latitude
- 36.4°–37.0° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 414 m to 611 m
- Production zone
- 95,196 ha
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 Μονεμβασία- Malvasia must meet.
Blend rules
Μονεμβασία - Malvasia Οίνος από λιαστά σταφύλια / Λιαστός
- ≥ 51% Μονεμβασιά · Main grape
- – Ασύρτικο / Κυδωνίτσα / Ασπρούδες · Allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
4 varieties · Μονεμβασία - Malvasia Οίνος από λιαστά σταφύλια / Λιαστός
Asproudes, Assyrtiko, Kydonitsa, Monemvassia
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
Training
Systems allowed
κυπελλοειδή (goblet); γραμμικά σχήματα (linear)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 20.2 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 2,177 growing degree days (Winkler IV).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 527 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 20.2 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 2,177
- Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 121 mm
- Of 442 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 54 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 414 m; Vineyard point 2, 526 m; Vineyard point 3, 487 m; Vineyard point 4, 611 m; Vineyard point 5, 595 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 complex terrain (height corrections up to 2.7 °C); absolute values may be several degrees out, year-to-year changes are more reliable.
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. Λαόνα ΑκάμαVery similarCompared with Μονεμβασία- Malvasia: same season warmth, drier (−18 mm).
2. ΣάμοςVery similarCompared with Μονεμβασία- Malvasia: same season warmth, wetter (+56 mm).
3. ValdeorrasVery similarCompared with Μονεμβασία- Malvasia: same season warmth, wetter (+86 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: Μονεμβασία- Malvasia (ΠΟΠ ΜΟΝΕΜΒΑΣΙΑ- MALVASIA ΠΡΟΔΙΑΓΡΑΦΗ ΠΡΟΪΟΝΤΟΣ.doc) · National authority, as filed in the EU register (eAmbrosia) · Official document
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Monemvasia at least 51% with variable shares of Assyrtiko, Kydonitsa and Asproudes. Both types are from sun-dried overripe grapes: natural alcohol at least 13.0% vol and must sugar 220 g/l before drying, 18.8% vol and 320 g/l after (the after-drying values are recorded). The liqueur wine adds wine spirit or raisin distillate by 31 May of the following year. Both need at least 24 months oxidative ageing in oak; vines over four years old.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.