What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Dão in Portugal
- Latitude
- 40.1°–40.9° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 218 m to 529 m
- Production zone
- 376,403 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 Dão must meet.
Blend rules
Dão tinto
- – Alfrocheiro / Alvarelhão / Aragonês / Bastardo / Jaen / Rufete / Tinto-Cão / Touriga-Nacional / Trincadeira · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Bouschet / Cabernet-Sauvignon / Pinot-Noir (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed red varieties (group 2) · Others allowed
Blend rules
Dão branco
- – Barcelo / Bical / Cerceal-Branco / Encruzado / Malvasia-Fina / Rabo-de-Ovelha / Terrantez / Uva-Cão / Verdelho · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Branco / Pinot-Blanc / Semillon (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed white varieties (group 2) · Others allowed
Blend rules
Dão rosado
- – Alfrocheiro / Alvarelhão / Aragonês / Bastardo / Jaen / Rufete / Tinto-Cão / Touriga-Nacional / Trincadeira · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Bouschet / Cabernet-Sauvignon / Pinot-Noir (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed red varieties (group 2) · Others allowed
Blend rules
Dão espumante natural
- – Barcelo / Bical / Cerceal-Branco / Encruzado / Malvasia-Fina / Rabo-de-Ovelha / Terrantez / Uva-Cão / Verdelho · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Branco / Pinot-Blanc / Semillon (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed white varieties (group 2) · Others allowed
Blend rules
Dão Nobre tinto
- – Alfrocheiro / Alvarelhão / Aragonês / Bastardo / Jaen / Rufete / Tinto-Cão / Touriga-Nacional / Trincadeira · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Bouschet / Cabernet-Sauvignon / Pinot-Noir (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed red varieties (group 2) · Others allowed
At least 36 months' ageing.
Blend rules
Dão Nobre branco
- – Barcelo / Bical / Cerceal-Branco / Encruzado / Malvasia-Fina / Rabo-de-Ovelha / Terrantez / Uva-Cão / Verdelho · Main grape
- ≤ 40% Alicante-Branco / Pinot-Blanc / Semillon (group 3, pre-1993 plantings) · Allowed
- – other listed white varieties (group 2) · 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.
48 varieties · Dão espumante natural
Agua Santa, Alfrocheiro, Alicante Bouschet, Alicante Branco, Alvarelhão, Arinto do Interior, Assaraky, Baga, Barcelo, Bical, Cabernet Sauvignon, Camarate, Campanário, Castelão, Cerceal Branco, Cidreiro, Cornifesto, Encruzado, Esganoso, Fernão Pires, Folha de Figueira, Jaen, Jampal, Luzidio, Malvasia Fina, Malvasia Preta, Malvasia Rei, Marufo, Monvedro, Pilongo, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Rabo de Ovelha, Rufete, Semillon, Síria, Tamarez, Tempranillo, Terrantez, Tinta Carvalha, Tinto Cao, Touriga Fêmea, Touriga Nacional, Trincadeira, Tália, Uva Cão, Verdelho, Verdial Branco
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
forma baixa (low-trained); cordão (cordon)
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 17.9 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,685 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 409 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 17.9 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,685
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 434 mm
- Of 980 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 188 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 368 m; Vineyard point 2, 120 m; Vineyard point 3, 515 m; Vineyard point 4, 497 m; Vineyard point 5, 546 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. PietroasaVery similarCompared with Dão: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. PierrevertVery similarCompared with Dão: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. Côtes de Bordeaux-Saint-MacaireVery similarCompared with Dão: 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, 188 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: Dão ((DOP DÃO - Grelha_Vs2).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: No minimum actual alcohol, acidity or yield beyond hl/ha is given. Replantings and new plantings after 5 November 1993 count only if made with the group 1 varieties; group 3 varieties count only in pre-1993 plantings and up to 40 % of the whole. Dão Nobre needs outstanding quality, a vintage on the label and 36 months' ageing (red) or 12 months (white), and may use Garrafeira and Reserva. Novo may be any colour and follows the colour's yield. Other terms (Palhete, Clarete, Colheita Tardia, Escolha, Superior, Reserva, Velho, Garrafeira...) follow Portaria 924/2004, not reproduced here.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.