What is made here
Wine colours
Colours the rules allow. Pick a colour to filter the rules and grapes below.
Where it is
Cotnari in Romania
- Latitude
- 47.2°–47.6° N
- Vineyard altitude
- 143 m to 257 m
- Production zone
- 59,509 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 Cotnari must meet.
Other varieties allowed
Besides the main grapes, the rules allow these varieties in some wines. Grape names link where a profile exists.
2 varieties · Cotnari quality aromatic sparkling wines, Cotnari semi-sparkling wines
Busuioacă de Bohotin, Tămâioasă Românească
11 varieties · Cotnari quality sparkling wines
Busuioacă de Bohotin, Chardonnay, Fetească Albă, Fetească Neagrăn, Frâncuşă, Grasă de Cotnari, Muscat Ottonel, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Traminer Roz, Tămâioasă Românească
In the vineyard and cellar: rules for every wine
3,330
Vines per hectare, minimum
Permitted
Irrigation
02 · Climate fingerprint
The climate
The growing season averages 16.4 °C, intermediate on Gregory Jones's scale, with 1,410 growing degree days (Winkler II).
The average year 1991–2020, vineyards at about 201 m
Monthly mean, °CRain, mmGrowing season
- Growing-season temperature
- 16.4 °C
- Intermediate · 15–17 °C (Jones)
- Growing degree days
- 1,410
- Region II: 1,389–1,666 degree days
- Growing-season rain
- 476 mm
- Of 666 mm a year
- Harvest rain
- 104 mm
- September–October
Copernicus ERA5-Land monthly averages at 5 vineyard points (Vineyard point 1, 207 m; Vineyard point 2, 202 m; Vineyard point 3, 242 m; Vineyard point 4, 197 m; Vineyard point 5, 156 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. PanciuVery similarCompared with Cotnari: same season warmth, similar rain.
2. BurgenlandVery similarCompared with Cotnari: same season warmth, similar rain.
3. BükkVery similarCompared with Cotnari: 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, 104 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
- Single document: Cotnari (Official Journal C, C/2025/821, 13.2.2025; and the product specification 'Caiet de sarcini DOC COTNARI.pdf' from the EU register) · European Union, Official Journal (C series) · EU law (Commission reuse policy)
- Climate profiles calculated by Vinous: method
Still to check (3)
- Generated from EU reference data: check against the current product specification.
- From the specification: Cuvées for quality sparkling wine need a total alcoholic strength of at least 9.0 % vol; quality sparkling wines need at least 3.5 bar, aromatic ones 3 bar and semi-sparkling wines 1–2.5 bar. The quality sparkling wine's maximum total strength is printed as 11.00 % vol. No maximum yields or sparkling method are stated; green harvesting is used when potential production exceeds the permitted maximum. Varieties (section 7) include Grasă de Cotnari, Frâncușă, Tămâioasă românească, Busuioacă de Bohotin, Fetească albă, Fetească neagră and others. From the national specification: yields vary by variety and the lowest are recorded (C.M.D. 10,000 to 12,000 kg/ha and 68 to 82 hl/ha, Fetească neagră 82 hl/ha; C.T. 9,000 to 10,000 kg and 60 to 67 hl; C.I.B. 8,000 kg and 52 hl, only for Tămâioasă românească, Grasă de Cotnari, Pinot gris, Sauvignon and Busuioacă de Bohotin). Red C.T. wines need 12.5 % vol actual alcohol and 23 g/l extract. Rezervă needs 6 months in oak and 6 in bottle; Vin de vinotecă one year in oak and 4 in bottle.
- National tier (DOC/DOCG) not captured yet; rules extracted from the specification text.