Vinous

PDO · Appellation profile

Balaton-felvidék / Balaton-felvidéki

45,710 haProduction zone
9Wines in the rules
17.1 °CGrowing season · warm
IIWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

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

Where it is

Balaton-felvidék in Hungary

Latitude
46.7°–47.1° N
Vineyard altitude
177 m to 315 m
Production zone
45,710 ha

Lies within
Balaton

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.

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 Balaton-felvidék must meet.

9 wines in the rules, all colours.
WineMax yield
t/ha
With named unit
t/ha
Max wine
hl/ha
Grape sugar
min. g/l
Grape ripeness
min. % pot. alc.
Actual alc.
min. %
Acidity
min. g/l
Balaton-felvidék wine – White 1411.4100152994
Balaton-felvidék wine – Rosé 1411.4100152994
Balaton-felvidék wine – Red 1411.4100152994
Balaton-felvidék sparkling wine – White 1411.4100–9.5104.6
Balaton-felvidék sparkling wine – Rosé 1411.4100–9.5104.6
Balaton-felvidék sparkling wine – Red 1411.4100–9.5104.6
Balaton-felvidék aerated semi-sparkling wine – White 1411.41001609.594
Balaton-felvidék aerated semi-sparkling wine – Rosé 1411.41001609.594
Balaton-felvidék aerated semi-sparkling wine – Red 1411.41001609.594

From the official production rules (EU single document, Official Journal). Hover a figure to see the clause it comes from. A dash means the rules set no figure, or it is not captured yet.

Other varieties allowed

Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.

28 varieties · Balaton-felvidék wine – White, Balaton-felvidék wine – Rosé, Balaton-felvidék wine – Red

Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Cserszegi Füszeres, Furmint, Hárslevelü, Irsai Oliver, Kékfrankos, Kéknyelü, Merlot, Nektár, Olasz Rizling, Ottonel Muskotály, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pátria, Rizlingszilváni, Rozália, Rózsakö, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Szürkebarát, Sárga Muskotály, Tramini, Turán, Zenit, Zweigelt, Zöld Veltelíni

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

3,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
Sylvoz; Moser (modified Moser); Guyot; umbrella; low, medium or high cordon; bush; head training

02 · Climate fingerprint

The climate

The growing season averages 17.1 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,520 growing degree days (Winkler II).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 194 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
0.3° 41 Jan 1.8° 45 Feb 6.1° 49 Mar 11.4° 51 Apr 16.1° 74 May 20.0° 79 Jun 21.9° 75 Jul 21.7° 69 Aug 16.6° 73 Sep 11.6° 60 Oct 6.2° 62 Nov 1.3° 56 Dec
Growing-season temperature
17.1 °C
Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,520
Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
Growing-season rain
480 mm
Of 732 mm a year
Harvest rain
133 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 193 m; Vineyard point 2, 215 m; Vineyard point 3, 203 m; Vineyard point 4, 178 m; Vineyard point 5, 179 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. CoteştiVery similarCompared with Balaton-felvidék: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Nagy-SomlóVery similarCompared with Balaton-felvidék: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. ΖίτσαVery similarCompared with Balaton-felvidék: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Balaton-felvidék
17.1 °C
Coteşti
17.0 °C
Nagy-Somló
17.0 °C
Ζίτσα
17.0 °C

Growing degree days

Balaton-felvidék
1,520
Coteşti
1,518
Nagy-Somló
1,509
Ζίτσα
1,520

Growing-season rain

Balaton-felvidék
480 mm
Coteşti
488 mm
Nagy-Somló
486 mm
Ζίτσα
493 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, 133 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. ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
  3. OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
  4. Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
  5. Single document: Balaton-felvidék (Official Journal C 126, 11.4.2023; and the technical file 'Ares(2014)2161146' from the EU register) · European Union, Official Journal (C series) · EU law (Commission reuse policy)
  6. Appellation nesting worked out from boundaries (pipeline/build_nesting.py) · Vinous, from the Eurac PDO boundaries · CC0 (source data)
  7. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Wines naming a locality (vineyard) are limited to 11.4 t/ha or 80 hl/ha of new wine on lees, need 11.7 % vol potential alcohol, manual harvest and 95 % identity of origin, and may not be sweetened. Only batch presses may be used; density and training rules apply to vineyards planted after 1 August 2010; hand harvest is required for 'főbor' and locality wines. The sparkling wines' sparkle comes from a second alcoholic fermentation but the document does not say whether in bottle or tank. Maximum volatile acidity is 18 meq/l (20 for red wine). 'Palackban érlelt' needs at least one year in bottle; 'Öreg tőkék bora' needs 85 % from vines over 40 years old. The national technical file gives grape sugar minimums of 151.5 g/l for wine and 159.9 g/l for semi-sparkling wine, none for sparkling wine.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.