What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Botticino in Italy
- Latitude
- 45.5°–45.6° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 132 m to 369 m
- Production zone
- 12,710 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 Botticino must meet.
Blend rules
Botticino
- ≥ 30% Barbera · Main grape
- ≥ 10% Schiava Gentile (media e grigia) · Main grape
- ≥ 20% Marzemino (Berzemino) · Main grape
- ≥ 10% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other grapes of the same colour suitable for Lombardia · Others allowed
; release from 1 June of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Botticino Riserva
- ≥ 30% Barbera · Main grape
- ≥ 10% Schiava Gentile (media e grigia) · Main grape
- ≥ 20% Marzemino (Berzemino) · Main grape
- ≥ 10% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other grapes of the same colour suitable for Lombardia · Others 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.
60 varieties · Botticino, Botticino Riserva
Ancellotta, Bellagna, Bonarda, Cabernet Carbon, Cabernet Cortis, Cabernet Eidos, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Volos, Carmenere, Corvina, Croatina, Dolcetto, Erbanno, Fortana, Franconia, Freisa, Grappello Ruberti, Groppello Gentile, Groppello di Mocasina, Groppello di S. Stefano, Iasma Eco 1, Iasma Eco 2, Incrocio Terzi N.1, Julius, Lagrein, Lambrusco Grasparossa, Lambrusco Maestri, Lambrusco Marani, Lambrusco Salamino, Lambrusco Viadanese, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Maiolina, Merera, Merlot, Merlot Kanthus, Meunier, Molinara, Montepulciano, Moradella, Mornasca, Moscato di Scanzo, Nebbiolo, Negrara, Petit Verdot, Pignola, Pinot Noir, Prior, Raboso Veronese, Rebo, Rondinella, Rossola Nera, Schiava, Schiava Grigia, Schiava Grossa, Serbina, Syrah, Teroldego, Uva Rara, Vespolina
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
500 m
Highest vineyard allowed
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Permitted
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 17.7 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,656 growing degree days (Winkler II).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 211 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 17.7 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,656
- Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 734 mm
- Of 1,114 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 235 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 435 m; Vineyard point 2, 118 m; Vineyard point 3, 152 m; Vineyard point 4, 131 m; Vineyard point 5, 217 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. Rubino di CantavennaVery similarCompared with Botticino: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. SoaveVery similarCompared with Botticino: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. PortofinoVery similarCompared with Botticino: 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, 235 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: Botticino · Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF) · Official act
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Bottling and bottle refinement must take place in the province of Brescia. Riserva ageing may be partly in wooden casks but no minimum wood period is set.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.