What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Falerno del Massico in Italy
- Latitude
- 41.0°–41.3° N
- Production zone
- 35,928 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 Falerno del Massico must meet.
Blend rules
Falerno del Massico Bianco
- ≥ 85% Falangina · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other grapes suitable for Campania · Others allowed
Blend rules
Falerno del Massico Rosso
- ≥ 60% Aglianico · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Piedirosso · Allowed
- ≤ 15% other grapes suitable for Campania · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Falerno del Massico Rosso Riserva/Vecchio
- ≥ 60% Aglianico · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Piedirosso · Allowed
- ≤ 15% other grapes suitable for Campania · Others allowed
Blend rules
Falerno del Massico Primitivo
- ≥ 85% Primitivo · Main grape
- ≤ 15% Aglianico / Piedirosso / Barbera · Allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Falerno del Massico Primitivo Riserva/Vecchio
- ≥ 85% Primitivo · Main grape
- ≤ 15% Aglianico / Piedirosso / Barbera · Allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
28 varieties · Falerno del Massico Bianco
Asprinio Bianco, Bellone, Biancolella, Bombino Bianco, Caprettone, Catalanesca, Coda di Volpe Bianca, Fenile, Fiano, Forastera, Ginestra, Greco, Malvasia Bianca, Malvasia Bianca di Candia, Montonico Bianco, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Pallagrello Bianco, Pepella, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Ripolo, Roviello, S. Lunardo, Sylvaner, Trebbiano Toscano, Veltliner, Verdeca, Welschriesling
21 varieties · Falerno del Massico Rosso, Falerno del Massico Rosso Riserva/Vecchio
Aglianicone, Alicante, Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Casavecchia, Cesanese Comune, Ciliegiolo, Lambrusco Maestri, Malvasia, Merlot, Montepulciano, Olivella Nera, Pallagrello Nero, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, Sangiovese, Sciascinoso, Tintore, Tronto, Uva di Troia
1 varieties · Falerno del Massico Primitivo, Falerno del Massico Primitivo Riserva/Vecchio
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,500
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
a filare (row training; expanded forms excluded)
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 19.5 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 2,041 growing degree days (Winkler IV).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 100 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 19.5 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 2,041
- Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 456 mm
- Of 1,092 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 233 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 4 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 93 m; Vineyard point 2, 86 m; Vineyard point 3, 91 m; Vineyard point 4, 130 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. TarquiniaVery similarCompared with Falerno del Massico: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Bianco CapenaVery similarCompared with Falerno del Massico: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. RomaVery similarCompared with Falerno del Massico: 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, 233 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: Falerno del Massico · 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: The Rosso and Primitivo may be dry or off-dry (sweetness null); the riserva versions are dry. The text gives no separate ageing period for the riserva/vecchio types (only one year for Rosso and Primitivo from 1 January after the harvest), so their ageing is left null.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.