What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Valpolicella in Italy
- Latitude
- 45.3°–45.7° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 64 m to 470 m
- Production zone
- 64,316 ha
Lies within
Garda, Vigneti della Serenissima, delle Venezie
Covers the same area as
Amarone della Valpolicella, Recioto della Valpolicella, Valpolicella Ripasso
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 Valpolicella must meet.
Blend rules
Valpolicella
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella Superiore
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Valpolicella Superiore (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Valpolicella Classico
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella Classico (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella Classico Superiore
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Valpolicella Classico Superiore (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Valpolicella Valpante
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella Valpante (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
Blend rules
Valpolicella Valpantena Superiore
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Valpolicella Valpantena Superiore (con Menzione Vigna)
- 45–95% Corvina Veronese / Corvinone · Main grape
- 5–30% Rondinella · Main grape
- ≤ 15% other non-aromatic red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
- ≤ 10% Italian autochthonous red grapes admitted in the province of Verona · Others allowed
At least 12 months' ageing.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
47 varieties · 12 wines
Ancellotta, Barbera, Cabernet Carbon, Cabernet Cortis, Cabernet Eidos, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Volos, Carmenere, Casetta, Corbina, Corvinone, Croatina, Dindarella, Forsellina, Gamay, Gosen, Iasma Eco 1, Iasma Eco 2, Julius, Lagrein, Lambrusco a Foglia Frastagliata, Marselan, Marzemina Grossa, Marzemino, Merlot, Merlot Kanthus, Merlot Khorus, Molinara, Negrara, Oseleta, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Prior, Raboso Veronese, Rebo, Regent, Rossignola, Sangiovese, Schiava Gentile, Schiava Grigia, Schiava Grossa, Sennen, Spigamonti, Syrah, Teroldego, Turchetta
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
spalliera; pergola veronese inclinata mono o bilaterale
No forcing
Forcing the vines is prohibited
Emergency only
Irrigation
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 18.6 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,844 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 184 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.6 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,844
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 726 mm
- Of 1,118 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 225 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 209 m; Vineyard point 2, 175 m; Vineyard point 3, 391 m; Vineyard point 4, 115 m; Vineyard point 5, 29 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 complex terrain (height corrections up to 4.6 °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. PiaveVery similarCompared with Valpolicella: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Colli BericiVery similarCompared with Valpolicella: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Hrvatsko primorjeVery similarCompared with Valpolicella: 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, 225 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: Valpolicella (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: Vinification and ageing are also allowed anywhere in the province of Verona for basic Valpolicella. Residual sugar is limited to 0.40% vol potential alcohol (no g/l figure); no separate yield for vigna wines. 'Valpolicella Valpante' is spelt as in the EU register.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.