What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Colline di Levanto in Italy
- Latitude
- 44.1°–44.3° N
- Production zone
- 7,940 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.
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 Colline di Levanto must meet.
Blend rules
Colline di Levanto Rosso
- ≥ 30% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≥ 20% Ciliegiolo · Main grape
- ≤ 50% altri vitigni a bacca rossa idonei per la Regione Liguria · Others allowed
Blend rules
Colline di Levanto Novello
- ≥ 30% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≥ 20% Ciliegiolo · Main grape
- ≤ 50% altri vitigni a bacca rossa idonei per la Regione Liguria · Others allowed
Blend rules
Colline di Levanto Bianco
- ≥ 40% Vermentino · Main grape
- ≥ 20% Albarola · Main grape
- ≥ 5% Bosco · Main grape
- ≤ 35% altri vitigni a bacca bianca idonei per la Regione Liguria · Others allowed
Blend rules
Colline di Levanto Vermentino
- ≥ 85% Vermentino · Main grape
- ≤ 15% altri vitigni a bacca analoga idonei per la Regione Liguria · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
13 varieties · Colline di Levanto Rosso, Colline di Levanto Novello
Albarossa, Alicante, Barbera, Barsaglina, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Canaiolo Nero, Dolcetto, Merlot, Pollera Nera, Rossese, Syrah, Vermentino Nero
13 varieties · Colline di Levanto Bianco
Albana, Bianchetta Genovese, Greco, Lumassina, Malvasia Bianca Lunga, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Pigato, Rollo, Rossese Bianco, Ruzzese, Sauvignon Blanc, Scimiscia', Trebbiano Toscano
15 varieties · Colline di Levanto Vermentino
Albana, Albarola, Bianchetta Genovese, Bosco, Greco, Lumassina, Malvasia Bianca Lunga, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Pigato, Rollo, Rossese Bianco, Ruzzese, Sauvignon Blanc, Scimiscia', Trebbiano Toscano
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
5,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
pergoletta ligure; controspalliera
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Emergency only
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 18.6 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,844 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 149 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.6 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,844
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 679 mm
- Of 1,382 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 327 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 4 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 310 m; Vineyard point 2, 221 m; Vineyard point 3, 54 m; Vineyard point 4, 12 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. Colli BericiVery similarCompared with Colline di Levanto: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Recioto di GambellaraVery similarCompared with Colline di Levanto: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. LafõesVery similarCompared with Colline di Levanto: 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, 327 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)
- Disciplinare di produzione: Colline di Levanto · 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: Minimum density is 5,000 vines/ha for controspalliera and 6,000 for pergola; average yield max 2.5 kg per vine. Enrichment with concentrated must is limited to rectified must. Art. 2 contains a stray sentence naming the 'Riviera Ligure di Ponente' DOC, apparently a drafting error.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.