What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo in Italy
- Latitude
- 41.8°–42.9° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 31 m to 338 m
- Production zone
- 503,183 ha
Covers the same area as
Abruzzo, Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
Contains 5 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Controguerra, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane, Ortona, Terre Tollesi, Villamagna
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.
01 · What the law says
The rules
Limits on grapes, yields, ripeness and ageing that every wine labelled Montepulciano d’Abruzzo must meet.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo
- ≥ 85% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
; release from 1 February after the harvest year.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Terre dei Vestini
- ≥ 90% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
At least 18 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Terre dei Vestini Riserva
- ≥ 90% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
At least 24 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Alto Tirino
- ≥ 95% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 5% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Alto Tirino Riserva
- ≥ 95% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 5% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Terre dei Peligni
- ≥ 95% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 5% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
At least 24 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Terre dei Peligni Riserva
- ≥ 95% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 5% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Teate
- ≥ 90% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
Blend rules
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Teate Riserva
- ≥ 90% Montepulciano · Main grape
- ≤ 10% other non-aromatic black grapes authorised for Abruzzo · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
23 varieties · 10 wines
Aglianico, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Calabrese, Canaiolo Nero, Ciliegiolo, Dolcetto, Gaglioppo, Grenache, Maiolica, Malbec, Marzemino, Merlot, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, Refosco Nostrano, Sangiovese, Syrah, Tannat, Terrano
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
2,400
Vines per hectare, minimum
600 m
Highest vineyard allowed
Training
Systems allowed
pergola abruzzese; spalliera semplice o doppia
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 18.7 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,875 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 213 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.7 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,875
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 449 mm
- Of 840 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 145 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 210 m; Vineyard point 2, 99 m; Vineyard point 3, 541 m; Vineyard point 4, 143 m; Vineyard point 5, 70 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. РусеVery similarCompared with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. CairanneVery similarCompared with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Tintilia del MoliseVery similarCompared with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: 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, 145 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: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo · 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: Subzone values come from the annexes (Allegati 1-5). “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva” without a subzone is in the register but the current text forbids the term riserva for the base wine, so its values are null. Vineyard and winemaking fields are for the base DOC: south-facing sites may reach 700 m; pergola plantings need 1,600 vines/ha; subzones need 3,000 vines/ha (4,000 in Alto Tirino, which also excludes sites below 300 m and allows only upright trellises for new plantings). Enrichment is excluded in Casauria, Alto Tirino and Teate. Ageing written as trenta (30) or ventuno (21) months is not recorded: Alto Tirino, Terre dei Peligni and Teate riserva need 30 months and Teate 21 months (9 in wood). Casauria bottle ageing (6 months) and Terre dei Vestini (3 months, riserva 6) follow the stated ageing period.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.