What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Etna in Italy
- Latitude
- 37.4°–38.0° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 511 m to 923 m
- Production zone
- 116,104 ha
Lies within
Sicilia
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 Etna must meet.
Blend rules
Etna Bianco
- ≥ 60% Carricante · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Catarratto bianco comune o lucido · Allowed
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Etna Bianco Superiore
- ≥ 80% Carricante · Main grape
- ≤ 20% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Etna Rosso
- ≥ 80% Nerello Mascalese · Main grape
- ≤ 20% Nerello Mantellato (Nerello Cappuccio) · Allowed
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Etna Rosso Riserva
- ≥ 80% Nerello Mascalese · Main grape
- ≤ 20% Nerello Mantellato (Nerello Cappuccio) · Allowed
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
At least 48 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Etna Rosato
- ≥ 80% Nerello Mascalese · Main grape
- ≤ 20% Nerello Mantellato (Nerello Cappuccio) · Allowed
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Etna Spumante
- ≥ 80% Nerello Mascalese · Main grape
- ≤ 20% other grapes suitable for Sicily · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
26 varieties · Etna Bianco
Albanello, Ansonica, Chenin Blanc, Damaschino, Fiano, Glera, Grecanico Dorato, Grillo, Malvasia Bianca, Malvasia di Lipari, Manzoni Bianco, Minnella Bianca, Montonico Bianco, Moscato Giallo, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Petit Manseng, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Trebbiano Toscano, Vermentino, Vernaccia di S. Giminiano, Viognier, Zibibbo
28 varieties · Etna Bianco Superiore
Albanello, Ansonica, Catarratto Bianco Comune, Catarratto Bianco Lucido, Chenin Blanc, Damaschino, Fiano, Glera, Grecanico Dorato, Grillo, Malvasia Bianca, Malvasia di Lipari, Manzoni Bianco, Minnella Bianca, Montonico Bianco, Moscato Giallo, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Petit Manseng, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Trebbiano Toscano, Vermentino, Vernaccia di S. Giminiano, Viognier, Zibibbo
29 varieties · 6 wines
Albanello, Ansonica, Carricante, Catarratto Bianco Comune, Catarratto Bianco Lucido, Chenin Blanc, Damaschino, Fiano, Glera, Grecanico Dorato, Grillo, Malvasia Bianca, Malvasia di Lipari, Manzoni Bianco, Minnella Bianca, Montonico Bianco, Moscato Giallo, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Petit Manseng, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Trebbiano Toscano, Vermentino, Vernaccia di S. Giminiano, Viognier, Zibibbo
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
4,600
Vines per hectare, minimum
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Prohibited
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 19.0 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,927 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 749 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 19.0 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,927
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 432 mm
- Of 911 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 202 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 923 m; Vineyard point 2, 536 m; Vineyard point 3, 677 m; Vineyard point 4, 792 m; Vineyard point 5, 819 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. Rosso PicenoVery similarCompared with Etna: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Muscat de RivesaltesVery similarCompared with Etna: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Monteregio di Massa MarittimaVery similarCompared with Etna: 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, 202 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: Etna · 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: Spumante may be white (red grapes vinified white) or rosato, brut to extra dry; both share the values above. Bianco superiore is limited to the comune of Milo and its grape yield is not stated separately; no yield is given for spumante. Vinification is also allowed in neighbouring comuni; density applies to new plantings.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.