Vinous

DOC · Appellation profile

Soave

27,926 haProduction zone
9Wines in the rules
17.8 °CGrowing season · warm
IIIWinkler region

What is made here

Wine colours

Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.

Where it is

Soave in Italy

Latitude
45.4°–45.6° N
Vineyard altitude
31 m to 477 m
Production zone
27,926 ha

Lies within
Garda, Vigneti della Serenissima, delle Venezie

Contains 2 appellations (outlined on the zone map)
Recioto di Soave, Soave Superiore

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 Soave must meet.

9 wines in the rules, all colours.
WineMain grape(s)Max yield
t/ha		Wine from grapes
max. %		Grape ripeness
min. % pot. alc.		Wine
min. % alc.		Acidity
min. g/l		Dry extract
min. g/l
Soave 70% Garganega15709.510.54.515
Soave (con Menzione Vigna) 70% Garganega15709.510.54.515
Soave Classico 70% Garganega147010114.516
Soave Classico (con Menzione Vigna) 70% Garganega147010114.516
Soave Colli Scaligeri 70% Garganega147010114.516
Soave Colli Scaligeri (con Menzione Vigna) 70% Garganega147010114.516
Soave Spumante 70% Garganega1570–11515
Soave Spumante Classico 70% Garganega1470–11515
Soave Spumante Colli Scaligeri 70% Garganega1470–11515

From the official production rules (disciplinare di produzione). Hover a figure to see the clause it comes from. A dash means the rules set no figure, or it is not captured yet.

Blend rules

Soave

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 December of the harvest year.

Blend rules

Soave (con Menzione Vigna)

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 December of the harvest year.

Blend rules

Soave Classico

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 February of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Soave Classico (con Menzione Vigna)

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 February of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Soave Colli Scaligeri

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 February of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Soave Colli Scaligeri (con Menzione Vigna)

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

; release from after 1 February of the year after the harvest.

Blend rules

Soave Spumante

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

Blend rules

Soave Spumante Classico

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

Blend rules

Soave Spumante Colli Scaligeri

  • ≥ 70% Garganega · Main grape
  • ≤ 30% Trebbiano di Soave (nostrano) / Chardonnay · Allowed
  • ≤ 5% other non-aromatic white varieties suitable for the province of Verona · Others allowed

Other varieties allowed

Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.

36 varieties · 9 wines

Bianchetta Trevigiana, Bronner, Cortese, Durella, Fleurtai, Friulano, Goldtraminer, Grapariol, Helios, Johanniter, Malvasia Bianca Lunga, Malvasia Istriana, Manzoni Bianco, Moscato Giallo, Muller Thurgau, Muscaris, Muscat Blanc A Petits Grains, Nosiola, Palava, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Kretos, Sauvignon Nepis, Sauvignon Rytos, Semillon, Solaris, Soreli, Souvignier Gris, Sylvaner, Trebbiano Giallo, Trebbiano Romagnolo, Trebbiano Toscano, Veltliner, Viognier, Welschriesling

In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine

3,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
spalliera; GDC; pergola
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 17.8 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,668 growing degree days (Winkler III).

The average year  1991–2020, vineyards at about 271 m

Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
2.0° 57 Jan 3.5° 64 Feb 7.6° 74 Mar 11.6° 104 Apr 16.2° 117 May 20.4° 101 Jun 22.8° 85 Jul 22.7° 98 Aug 17.9° 111 Sep 12.9° 118 Oct 7.4° 127 Nov 2.8° 79 Dec
Growing-season temperature
17.8 °C
Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
Growing degree days
1,668
Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
Growing-season rain
734 mm
Of 1,135 mm a year
Harvest rain
229 mm
September–October

Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 147 m; Vineyard point 2, 32 m; Vineyard point 3, 149 m; Vineyard point 4, 567 m; Vineyard point 5, 460 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:Monthly reanalysis in moderately complex terrain; not yet checked against a weather station.

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. PortofinoVery similarCompared with Soave: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. BotticinoVery similarCompared with Soave: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Cinque TerreVery similarCompared with Soave: same season warmth, similar rain.

Growing-season temperature

Soave
17.8 °C
Portofino
17.8 °C
Botticino
17.7 °C
Cinque Terre
17.8 °C

Growing degree days

Soave
1,668
Portofino
1,668
Botticino
1,656
Cinque Terre
1,667

Growing-season rain

Soave
734 mm
Portofino
713 mm
Botticino
734 mm
Cinque Terre
701 mm

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, 229 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

  1. 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
  2. Quality wines in Italy and France: a dataset of PDO specifications · figshare 25393261 · CC BY 4.0
  3. ERA5-Land monthly averaged data (reanalysis-era5-land-monthly-means) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Climate Data Store · CC BY 4.0 (Copernicus licence)
  4. OpenStreetMap vineyard areas (landuse=vineyard), from Geofabrik country extracts · OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0
  5. Copernicus DEM GLO-90 (AWS open data tiles) · European Space Agency / Copernicus · Copernicus DEM licence
  6. Disciplinare di produzione: Soave (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
  7. Appellation nesting worked out from boundaries (pipeline/build_nesting.py) · Vinous, from the Eurac PDO boundaries · CC0 (source data)
  8. Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
  • Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
  • From the specification: Grapes for spumante may have natural alcohol 0.5% vol below the still-wine minimum. Spumante is made by natural re-fermentation (method not specified), in extra brut to dry styles, within Veneto. Vinification may also take place across Verona province and in Gambellara and Montebello; bottling must take place in that area.
  • National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.