What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Coste della Sesia in Italy
- Latitude
- 45.5°–45.7° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 284 m to 399 m
- Production zone
- 26,885 ha
Lies within
Piemonte
Contains 3 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Bramaterra, Gattinara, Lessona
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 Coste della Sesia must meet.
Blend rules
Coste della Sesia Rosso
- ≥ 50% Nebbiolo (Spanna) · Main grape
- ≤ 50% other non-aromatic red grapes authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
Blend rules
Coste della Sesia Rosato
- ≥ 50% Nebbiolo (Spanna) · Main grape
- ≤ 50% other non-aromatic red grapes authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
Blend rules
Coste della Sesia Nebbiolo/Spanna
- ≥ 85% Nebbiolo (Spanna) · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic grapes authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
Blend rules
Coste della Sesia Croatina
- ≥ 85% Croatina · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic grapes authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
Blend rules
Coste della Sesia Vespolina
- ≥ 85% Vespolina · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic grapes authorised in Piemonte · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
47 varieties · Coste della Sesia Rosso, Coste della Sesia Rosato, Coste della Sesia Nebbiolo/Spanna
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, Ner d'Ala, Neretta Cuneese, Neretto di Bairo, Passau, Pelaverga, Pelaverga Piccolo, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Plassa, Quagliano, Ruche', Sangiovese, Slarina, Syrah, Teroldego, Uva Rara, Uvalino, Vespolina
47 varieties · Coste della Sesia Croatina
Albarossa, Ancellotta, Avana', Avarengo, Barbera, Becuet, Bonarda, Brachetto, Bragat Rosa, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chatus, Ciliegiolo, Cornarea, 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, Pinot Noir, Plassa, Quagliano, Ruche', Sangiovese, Slarina, Syrah, Teroldego, Uva Rara, Uvalino, Vespolina
47 varieties · Coste della Sesia Vespolina
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, Pinot Noir, Plassa, Quagliano, Ruche', Sangiovese, Slarina, Syrah, Teroldego, Uva Rara, Uvalino
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
2,500
Vines per hectare, minimum
200–600 m
Vineyard altitude allowed
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 16.4 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,379 growing degree days (Winkler Ib).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 325 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 16.4 °C
- Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,379
- Region Ib: 1,111–1,388 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 1,141 mm
- Of 1,704 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 378 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 336 m; Vineyard point 2, 324 m; Vineyard point 3, 263 m; Vineyard point 4, 326 m; Vineyard point 5, 375 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. RamandoloVery similarCompared with Coste della Sesia: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. PiemonteVery similarCompared with Coste della Sesia: same season warmth, drier (−115 mm).
3. Valtellina SuperioreVery similarCompared with Coste della Sesia: same season warmth, drier (−169 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, 378 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: Coste della Sesia · 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: Yields are given in kg/ha. With the 'vigna' mention (vineyards from the seventh year) Nebbiolo is limited to 8,100 kg/ha at 12.00% natural alcohol (not recorded as a number here), Croatina and Vespolina to 9,000 kg/ha at 11.50%; vigna wines need 12.00% (Nebbiolo) or 11.50% (Croatina, Vespolina) total alcohol.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.