What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Douro in Portugal
- Latitude
- 40.9°–41.6° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 132 m to 616 m
- Production zone
- 269,167 ha
Covers the same area as
Porto
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 Douro must meet.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
109 varieties · Moscatel do Douro, Douro espumante
Alfrocheiro, Alicante Bouschet, Alvarelhão Ceitão, Alvarinho, Aramon, Arinto, Avesso, Baga, Barreto, Bastardo, Batoca, Bical, Branco Especial, Branco Gouvães, Branco Guimarães, Caramela, Carignan, Carrega Branco, Carrega Tinto, Casculho, Castelã, Castelão, Cerceal Branco, Chasselas, Cidadelhe, Concieira, Cornifesto, Côdega do Larinho, Diagalves, Donzelinho Branco, Donzelinho Tinto, Engomada, Espadeiro, Estreito Macio, Fernão Pires, Folgasão, Folha de Figueira, Gonçalo Pires, Gouveio, Gouveio Estimado, Gouveio Real, Grand Noir, Grangeal, Jaen, Jampal, Lourela, Malandra, Malvasia Fina, Malvasia Parda, Malvasia Preta, Malvasia Rei, Marufo, Melra, Mondet, Moreto, Moscadet, Moscatel Galego Branco, Mourisco, Mourisco Branco, Mourisco de Semente, Mourisco de Trevões, Nevoeira, Patorra, Petit Bouschet, Pinot Noir, Português Azul, Praça, Preto Martinho, Pé Comprido, Rabigato, Rabigato Moreno, Rabo de Ovelha, Ratinho, Roseira, Rufete, Samarrinho, Santareno, Sarigo, Semillon, Sercial, Sevilhão, Síria, Tamarez, Tempranillo, Tinta Aguiar, Tinta Barocca, Tinta Caiada, Tinta Carvalha, Tinta Fontes, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Martins, Tinta Mesquita, Tinta Penajoia, Tinta Pereira, Tinta Pomar, Tinta Tabuaço, Tinto Cao, Tinto Sem Nome, Touriga Franca, Touriga Fêmea, Touriga Nacional, Trincadeira, Valdosa, Varejoa, Verdelho, Verdial Branco, Vinhão, Viosinho, Vital
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
4,000
Vines per hectare, minimum
Training
Systems allowed
vara (cane); vara e talão (cane and spur); cordão (cordon)
Cellar
Where the wine must be made
Within the production zone
Allowed
Enrichment (chaptalisation)
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 18.8 °C, warm on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,879 growing degree days (Winkler III).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 333 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 18.8 °C
- Warm · 17–19 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,879
- Region III: 1,667–1,943 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 344 mm
- Of 737 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 146 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 142 m; Vineyard point 2, 570 m; Vineyard point 3, 255 m; Vineyard point 4, 418 m; Vineyard point 5, 281 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. Banyuls grand cruVery similarCompared with Douro: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. BanyulsVery similarCompared with Douro: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. CollioureVery similarCompared with Douro: 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, 146 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: Douro (AM01_Caderno especificações Douro -alteração menor.pdf) · National authority, as filed in the EU register (eAmbrosia) · Official document
- 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: Two quality levels: 'good quality' wines need 10.5 % (white/rosé) or 11 % vol (red) actual alcohol; 'very good and high quality' wines need 11.5 % / 12 % vol, and red then needs 12 months from 1 October and white 6 months from 1 October before sale (white of good quality needs no ageing). Enrichment (rectified or Douro concentrated must) and partial must concentration are allowed only exceptionally in poor years. Density may fall to 3,000 vines/ha on terraces (20 % tolerance) and older vineyards are exempt. Sparkling: 9 months on lees minimum, 12/24/36 months for Reserva, Super-reserva/Cuvée and Grande Reserva/Colheita Seleccionada tiers. Moscatel do Douro: 16.5-22 % vol; age indications 10/20/30/40 anos; vintage-dated Moscatel needs 6 months in wood. Colheita Tardia is made from overripe grapes. Bottling may also take place in the Vila Nova de Gaia entreposto. Detailed yields, ageing and terms are in national regulations annexed to the specification.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.