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Spain · PDO · protected since 1986

Rioja

Rioja is a Spanish PDO, protected since 1986. The registered specification allows 14 grape varieties, grown within a delimited zone of 3,685 km².

Delimited area
3,685 km²
Permitted varieties
14
Max yield
63 hl/ha
Average season GDD
1553

The delimited zone

BilbaoZaragozaPamplonaVitoriaBurgosLogrono100 km
The official boundary, from the EU PDO geospatial inventory (Sci Data 9, 394), shown over its surroundings. Backdrop cartography: Natural Earth (public domain).

What may go in the bottle

The registered specification authorises 14 grape varieties for these product categories: quality sparkling wine/wine.

The rules of the appellation

Product categoriesQuality Sparkling Wine/Wine
Maximum yield63 hl/ha
Maximum harvest9000 kg/ha
Minimum planting density2580 vines/ha
IrrigationAllowed
Delimited municipalities141 communes
EU file numberPDO-ES-A0117

Every vintage since 2000, measured

We calculate each growing season (April–October) from the Open-Meteo historical archive, taken at the centre of the appellation. Degree days use the Winkler scale, base 10 °C. It is the same data the textbooks use, simply done for every region and every year.

01000200030002000: 1,319 GDD20002001: 1,382 GDD2002: 1,222 GDD20022003: 1,599 GDD2004: 1,377 GDD2005: 1,492 GDD20052006: 1,588 GDD2007: 1,257 GDD2008: 1,233 GDD2009: 1,489 GDD2010: 1,275 GDD20102011: 1,544 GDD2012: 1,515 GDD2013: 1,249 GDD2014: 1,486 GDD2015: 1,424 GDD20152016: 1,440 GDD2017: 1,756 GDD2018: 1,650 GDD2019: 1,720 GDD2020: 1,735 GDD20202021: 1,677 GDD2022: 2,198 GDD20222023: 2,053 GDD2024: 1,784 GDD2025: 1,902 GDD2025
Growing degree days by vintage. Dashed line: 26-year average (1553).
02004006008002000: 538 mm20002001: 339 mm2002: 540 mm2003: 594 mm2004: 487 mm2005: 472 mm20052006: 579 mm2007: 441 mm2008: 657 mm20082009: 425 mm2010: 467 mm20102011: 392 mm2012: 486 mm2013: 510 mm2014: 457 mm2015: 491 mm20152016: 314 mm2017: 314 mm2018: 489 mm2019: 391 mm2020: 428 mm20202021: 276 mm2022: 238 mm20222023: 406 mm2024: 503 mm2025: 361 mm2025
Growing-season rainfall by vintage, mm. Dashed line: average (446 mm).
VintageGDDRain mm Harvest rain*Frost days35 °C+ days
20001319538 11720
20011382339 6211
20021222540 9000
20031599594 16128
20041377487 3700
20051492472 9000
20061588579 9220
20071257441 8502
20081233657 11800
20091489425 8401
20101275467 7101
20111544392 2902
20121515486 13607
20131249510 5411
20141486457 8901
20151424491 7601
20161440314 3811
20171756314 3001
20181650489 7901
20191720391 6608
20201735428 9608
20211677276 5107
20222198238 38325
20232053406 90013
20241784503 175015
20251902361 49016

*rain in the final 45 days of the season.

Sources. Regulatory data: eAmbrosia, the EU geographical indications register (file PDO-ES-A0117) and the EU wine PDO inventory, Sci Data 9, 394 (2022), CC BY 4.0. Weather: Open-Meteo historical archive (CC BY 4.0). Every number on this page is calculated from the records cited above, and every rule is taken straight from them. Nothing here is machine-written filler.