What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Alta Langa in Italy
- Latitude
- 44.3°–44.8° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 200 m to 515 m
- Production zone
- 228,489 ha
Lies within
Piemonte
Contains 8 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Brachetto d'Acqui, Dogliani, Dolcetto d'Acqui, Dolcetto di Diano d'Alba, Dolcetto di Ovada, Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore, Loazzolo, Strevi
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 Alta Langa must meet.
Blend rules
Alta Langa Spumante Rosato
- 90–100% Pinot nero / Chardonnay · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic varieties authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
At least 30 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Alta Langa Spumante Rosato Riserva
- 90–100% Pinot nero / Chardonnay · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic varieties authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
At least 36 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Alta Langa Spumante
- 90–100% Pinot nero / Chardonnay · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic varieties authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
At least 30 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Alta Langa Spumante Riserva
- 90–100% Pinot nero / Chardonnay · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic varieties authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
At least 36 months' ageing.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
47 varieties · Alta Langa Spumante Rosato, Alta Langa Spumante Rosato Riserva
Albarossa, Ancellotta, Avana', Avarengo, Barbera, Becuet, Bonarda, Brachetto, Bragat Rosa, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chatus, Ciliegiolo, Cornarea, Croatina, Dolcetto, Doux d'Henry, Durasa, Freisa, Gamay, Gamba Rossa, Grignolino, Lambrusca di Alessandria, Malvasia Nera Lunga, Malvasia di Casorzo, Malvasia di Schierano, Merlot, Montanera, Moscato Nero di Acqui, Nebbiolo, Ner d'Ala, Neretta Cuneese, Neretto di Bairo, Passau, Pelaverga, Pelaverga Piccolo, Petit Verdot, Plassa, Quagliano, Ruche', Sangiovese, Slarina, Syrah, Teroldego, Uva Rara, Uvalino, Vespolina
20 varieties · Alta Langa Spumante, Alta Langa Spumante Riserva
Arneis, Baratuciat, Barbera Bianca, Bussanello, Cortese, Erbaluce, Favorita, Malvasia Moscata, Manzoni Bianco, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Nascetta, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Rossese Bianco, Sauvignon Blanc, Sylvaner, Timorasso, Viognier, Welschriesling
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
4,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
250 m
Lowest vineyard allowed
Training
Systems allowed
controspalliera bassa (Guyot tradizionale); controspalliera bassa (cordone speronato)
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Emergency only
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 17.4 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,589 growing degree days (Winkler II).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 353 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 17.4 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,589
- Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 628 mm
- Of 1,074 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 226 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 330 m; Vineyard point 2, 489 m; Vineyard point 3, 284 m; Vineyard point 4, 192 m; Vineyard point 5, 471 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. Freisa di ChieriVery similarCompared with Alta Langa: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. MadiranVery similarCompared with Alta Langa: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Pacherenc du Vic-BilhVery similarCompared with Alta Langa: 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, 226 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
- Disciplinare di produzione: Alta Langa · Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF) · Official act
- 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: Bottle-fermented sparkling only. Elaboration (including time on lees from start of bottle fermentation) at least 30 months, 36 for riserva; wine-making must take place in Piemonte. Demi-sec, sec and dolce styles excluded.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.