What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Penisola Sorrentina in Italy
- Latitude
- 40.6°–40.7° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 94 m to 619 m
- Production zone
- 15,943 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 Penisola Sorrentina must meet.
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Bianco
- ≥ 60% Falanghina / Biancolella / Greco bianco · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Falanghina · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Sorrento Bianco
- ≥ 60% Falanghina / Biancolella / Greco bianco · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Falanghina · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic white grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Rosso
- ≥ 60% Piedirosso / Sciascinoso / Aglianico · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Piedirosso · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic black grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Sorrento Rosso
- ≥ 60% Piedirosso / Sciascinoso / Aglianico · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Piedirosso · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic black grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Lettere Rosso Frizzante
- ≥ 60% Piedirosso / Sciascinoso / Aglianico · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Piedirosso · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic black grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Gragnano Rosso Frizzante
- ≥ 60% Piedirosso / Sciascinoso / Aglianico · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Piedirosso · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic black grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Blend rules
Penisola Sorrentina Rosso Frizzante
- ≥ 60% Piedirosso / Sciascinoso / Aglianico · Main grape
- ≥ 40% Piedirosso · Main grape
- ≤ 40% other non-aromatic black grapes suitable for the province of Napoli · Others allowed
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
12 varieties · Penisola Sorrentina Bianco, Penisola Sorrentina Sorrento Bianco
Asprinio Bianco, Bombino Bianco, Caprettone, Catalanesca, Coda di Volpe Bianca, Fiano, Forastera, Montonico Bianco, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, S. Lunardo, Trebbiano Toscano, Verdeca
11 varieties · 5 wines
Aglianicone, Alicante, Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Montepulciano, Olivella Nera, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, Sangiovese
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
1,800
Vines per hectare, minimum
600 m
Highest vineyard allowed
Training
Systems allowed
controspalliera; pergola
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 19.2 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,962 growing degree days (Winkler IV).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 283 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 19.2 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,962
- Region IV: 1,944–2,221 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 455 mm
- Of 1,209 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 235 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 125 m; Vineyard point 2, 243 m; Vineyard point 3, 363 m; Vineyard point 4, 575 m; Vineyard point 5, 109 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:The vineyards are on land too small for the reanalysis grid, so the nearest land cell (up to 18 km away) is used; island climates are usually milder than this. Monthly reanalysis in complex terrain (height corrections up to 2.2 °C); absolute values may be several degrees out, year-to-year changes are more reliable.
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. Morellino di ScansanoVery similarCompared with Penisola Sorrentina: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. VacqueyrasVery similarCompared with Penisola Sorrentina: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. TerracinaVery similarCompared with Penisola Sorrentina: 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, 235 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: Penisola Sorrentina (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
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Altitude limit is 650 m in the comune of Agerola; the density minimum applies to new plantings and replantings. Frizzante wines may be made by natural refermentation only (artificial carbonation prohibited) and may be dry or soft, sometimes amabile, so sweetness is left null. Winemaking may be authorised elsewhere in the province of Napoli for traditional producers.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.