What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Orcia in Italy
- Latitude
- 42.8°–43.2° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 167 m to 525 m
- Production zone
- 119,425 ha
Contains 4 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Brunello di Montalcino, Moscadello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcino, Sant'Antimo
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 Orcia must meet.
Blend rules
Orcia Sangiovese
- ≥ 90% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 10% Canaiolo nero / Colorino / Ciliegiolo / Foglia tonda / Pugnitello / Malvasia nera · Allowed
; release from 1 March of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Sangiovese Riserva
- ≥ 90% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 10% Canaiolo nero / Colorino / Ciliegiolo / Foglia tonda / Pugnitello / Malvasia nera · Allowed
At least 30 months' ageing; release from 1 June of the third year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Bianco
- ≥ 50% Trebbiano Toscano · Main grape
- ≤ 50% other white non-aromatic grapes suitable in Toscana · Others allowed
; release from 1 March of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Vin Santo
- ≥ 50% Trebbiano toscano / Malvasia bianca lunga · Main grape
- ≤ 50% other white grapes suitable in Toscana · Others allowed
At least 18 months' ageing; release from 1 November of the third year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Rosso
- ≥ 60% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic grapes suitable in Toscana · Others allowed
; release from 1 March of the year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Rosso Riserva
- ≥ 60% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic grapes suitable in Toscana · Others allowed
At least 24 months' ageing; release from 1 December of the second year after the harvest.
Blend rules
Orcia Rosato
- ≥ 60% Sangiovese · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic grapes suitable in Toscana · Others allowed
; release from 1 March of the year after the harvest.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
6 varieties · Orcia Sangiovese, Orcia Sangiovese Riserva
Canaiolo Nero, Ciliegiolo, Colorino, Foglia Tonda, Malvasia Nera, Pugnitello
34 varieties · Orcia Bianco
Albana, Albarola, Ansonica, Biancone, Canaiolo Bianco, Clairette, Durella, Fiano, Grechetto, Greco, Incrocio Bruni 54, Livornese Bianca, Malvasia Bianca Lunga, Malvasia Bianca di Candia, Malvasia Istriana, Manzoni Bianco, Marsanne, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Nocchianello Bianco, Orpicchio, Petit Manseng, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Roussanne, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Verdea, Verdello, Verdicchio Bianco, Vermentino, Vernaccia di S. Giminiano, Viognier, Welschriesling
33 varieties · Orcia Vin Santo
Albana, Albarola, Ansonica, Biancone, Canaiolo Bianco, Clairette, Durella, Fiano, Grechetto, Greco, Incrocio Bruni 54, Livornese Bianca, Malvasia Bianca di Candia, Malvasia Istriana, Manzoni Bianco, Marsanne, Muller Thurgau, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Nocchianello Bianco, Orpicchio, Petit Manseng, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Roussanne, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Verdea, Verdello, Verdicchio Bianco, Vermentino, Vernaccia di S. Giminiano, Viognier, Welschriesling
54 varieties · Orcia Rosso, Orcia Rosso Riserva, Orcia Rosato
Alicante, Alicante Bouschet, Ancellotta, Barbera, Barsaglina, Bonamico, Bracciola Nera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Calabrese, Caloria, Canaiolo Nero, Canina Nera, Carignan, Carmenere, Cesanese D Affile, Ciliegiolo, Colombana Nera, Colorino, Foglia Tonda, Gamay, Gralima, Grand Noir, Gratena, Groppello Gentile, Groppello di S. Stefano, Lambrusco Maestri, Malbec, Malvasia, Malvasia Nera di Brindisi, Malvasia Nera di Lecce, Mammolo, Mazzese, Merlese, Merlot, Mondeuse, Montepulciano, Moscato D Amburgo, Mourvèdre, Nocchianello Nero, Pinot Noir, Pollera Nera, Prugnolo Gentile, Pugnitello, Rebo, Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, Roussin, Sagrantino, Sanforte, Schiava Gentile, Syrah, Tempranillo, Teroldego, Vermentino Nero
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
700 m
Highest vineyard allowed
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Permitted
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 18.3 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,768 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 422 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.3 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,768
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 486 mm
- Of 876 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 192 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 489 m; Vineyard point 2, 360 m; Vineyard point 3, 363 m; Vineyard point 4, 500 m; Vineyard point 5, 398 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. Colli AltotiberiniVery similarCompared with Orcia: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. БрестникVery similarCompared with Orcia: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. ПерущицаVery similarCompared with Orcia: 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, 192 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: Orcia (version published by MASAF up to May 2023, via the Internet Archive; later amendments not yet included) · 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: Enrichment is permitted for all types except Vin Santo. Vin Santo grapes are dried naturally to at least 26% sugar before pressing (no minimum drying period); its sweetness ranges from dry to sweet, so it is left unset. Bottling must take place in the province of Siena.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.