What is made here
Wine colours
The only colour the rules allow.
Where it is
Carcavelos in Portugal
- Latitude
- 38.7°–38.8° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 10 m to 66 m
- Production zone
- 11,089 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.
01 · What the law says
The rules
Limits on grapes, yields, ripeness and ageing that every wine labelled Carcavelos must meet.
Blend rules
Carcavelos vinho generoso
- ≥ 75% Galego Dourado / Boal / Ratinho / Arinto (white); Periquita / Preto-Martinho (red) · Main grape
- ≤ 25% Rabo-de-Ovelha / Seara-Nova (white); Trincadeira-Preta (red) · 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 · Carcavelos vinho generoso
Amostrinha, Arinto, Boal Branco, Castelão, Galego Dourado, Malvasia Fina, Negra Mole, Preto Martinho, Rabo de Ovelha, Ratinho, Seara Nova, Trincadeira
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,300
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
forma baixa: taça (gobelet); cordão (cordon)
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 1,841 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 45 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.6 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,841
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 234 mm
- Of 604 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 113 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 64 m; Vineyard point 2, 52 m; Vineyard point 3, 11 m; Vineyard point 4, 42 m; Vineyard point 5, 55 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. ManchuelaVery similarCompared with Carcavelos: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. Vera de EstenasVery similarCompared with Carcavelos: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. El TerrerazoVery similarCompared with Carcavelos: 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, 113 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
- 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
- Product specification: Carcavelos (CVRLisboa-Caderno Especificações DO Carcavelos final.pdf) · National authority, as filed in the EU register (eAmbrosia) · Official document
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Fortified wine (vinho generoso), white or red; actual alcohol 15-22 % vol. Fortified with wine spirit of 76-78 % vol or alcohol of at least 95 % vol. Total minimum ageing is 30 months (two years in wood plus six months in bottle). The 75 % / 25 % grape shares apply to the group of listed varieties. Density minimum applies to new vineyards; vegetation must start no higher than 60 cm; vines at least four years from grafting. Vinification outside the region may be authorised in exceptional cases.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.