What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Santa Margherita di Belice in Italy
- Latitude
- 37.6°–37.7° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 195 m to 421 m
- Production zone
- 9,996 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 Santa Margherita di Belice must meet.
Blend rules
Santa Margherita di Belice Rosso
- 20–50% Nero d'Avola · Main grape
- 50–80% Sangiovese / Cabernet Sauvignon · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other red grapes authorised in Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Santa Margherita di Belice Bianco
- 30–50% Ansonica · Main grape
- 50–70% Grecanico / Catarratto bianco lucido · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other white grapes authorised in Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Santa Margherita di Belice Catarratto
- ≥ 85% Catarratto · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other white grapes authorised in Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Santa Margherita di Belice Grecanico
- ≥ 85% Grecanico · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other white grapes authorised in Sicily · Others allowed
Blend rules
Santa Margherita di Belice Ansonica
- ≥ 85% Ansonica · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other white grapes authorised in 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 · Santa Margherita di Belice Rosso
Aglianico, Alicante, Alicante Bouschet, Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Calabrese, Carignan, Catanese Nero, Ciliegiolo, Corinto Nero, Frappato, Gaglioppo, Malbec, Merlot, Mondeuse, Montepulciano, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese, Nocera, Perricone, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Tannat, Tempranillo
28 varieties · Santa Margherita di Belice Nero D`Avola
Aglianico, Alicante, Alicante Bouschet, Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Calabrese, Carignan, Catanese Nero, Ciliegiolo, Corinto Nero, Frappato, Gaglioppo, Malbec, Merlot, Mondeuse, Montepulciano, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese, Nocera, Perricone, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Syrah, Tannat, Tempranillo
27 varieties · Santa Margherita di Belice Sangiovese
Aglianico, Alicante, Alicante Bouschet, Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Calabrese, Carignan, Catanese Nero, Ciliegiolo, Corinto Nero, Frappato, Gaglioppo, Malbec, Merlot, Mondeuse, Montepulciano, Nerello Cappuccio, Nerello Mascalese, Nocera, Perricone, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Tannat, Tempranillo
26 varieties · Santa Margherita di Belice Bianco
Albanello, Carricante, Catarratto Bianco Comune, Chenin Blanc, Damaschino, Fiano, Glera, 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 · Santa Margherita di Belice Catarratto
Albanello, Ansonica, Carricante, Catarratto Bianco Comune, 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 · Santa Margherita di Belice Grecanico
Albanello, Ansonica, Carricante, Catarratto Bianco Comune, Catarratto Bianco Lucido, Chenin Blanc, Damaschino, Fiano, Glera, 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 · Santa Margherita di Belice Ansonica
Albanello, 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
2,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
alberello; controspalliera
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 20.4 °C, hot on Gregory Jones's scale, with 2,227 growing degree days (Winkler V).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 344 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 20.4 °C
- Hot · 19–21 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 2,227
- Region V: 2,222 and over degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 231 mm
- Of 600 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 120 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 397 m; Vineyard point 2, 198 m; Vineyard point 3, 421 m; Vineyard point 4, 351 m; Vineyard point 5, 354 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. Campo de La GuardiaVery similarCompared with Santa Margherita di Belice: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Casa del BlancoVery similarCompared with Santa Margherita di Belice: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Pago FlorentinoVery similarCompared with Santa Margherita di Belice: 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, 120 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: Santa Margherita di Belice (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: Art. 2 gives no grape composition for the Nero d'Avola and Sangiovese varietal wines (only white varietals get the 85% rule), so their grape shares are left null. Art. 4 sets a 70% grape-to-wine yield for all wines but Art. 5 sets 65% for whites and 70% for reds; the stricter Art. 5 figures are recorded. Minimum density is 2,300/ha (existing spalliera), 2,700 existing alberello; new plantings 2,800 spalliera and 3,000 alberello. Vinification is also allowed in listed neighbouring communes.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.