Viticulture zone
The entire vineyard area in the wine-growing regions of the European Union is divided into a total of seven wine-growing zones according to EU regulations according to climatic criteria . These are the main zones A, B, and C. The main zone C is further divided into the sub-zones CIa, CIb, CII, CIIIa and CIIIb.
Zone A has the coldest climate . Zone CIIIb has the warmest climate. For the wineries in the different zones, different rules apply in respect of must weight , enrichment deacidification of and acidizing, or wine .
The German wine-growing regions together with the Luxembourg wine-growing region belong to the wine-growing zone A - with the exception of Baden .
The Baden wine-growing region , together with the French wine-growing regions of Alsace , Lorraine , Champagne , Jura , Savoie and Loire Valley, is part of the B.
There are efforts to simplify the division into three zones, south, middle and north. The minimum requirements for wine in the northern zone are expected to be increased.
On the American continent, only in California is there a similarly precise division into different climate zones.
Definition of the viticulture zones
The exact division of the European wine-growing zones is as follows:
- Zone A, the coolest of the zones, includes all other areas of Germany with the exception of the Baden wine-growing region . In addition, the vineyards of Luxembourg , Belgium , the Netherlands and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as all Scandinavian countries belong to Zone A.
- Zone B, in addition to the Baden area, all of Austria's wine-growing areas are in this zone. In France , the regions Alsace, Champagne, Jura, Loire , Lorraine and Savoie are included.
- Zone C, the warmest zone, is divided into the following sub-zones:
- Zone CI a. In France, these include the regions of Bordeaux , Burgundy , Provence , Rhône and Sud-Ouest . In addition, some areas in northern Spain and most of the Portuguese regions have been classified here.
- Zone CI b, with a small part of the northern growing areas of Italy .
- Zone C II includes the cultivated areas of Languedoc-Roussillon as well as most of the northern areas of Italy and Spain.
- Zone C III a applies to the cooler part of the Greek growing areas
- Zone C III b applies to French areas on the Mediterranean Sea as well as Corsica , the south of Italy and Spain, the warmest regions of Portugal and most of Greece.
literature
- Holger Vornholt, Joachim Grau: Wine Encyclopedia. With the wine lexicon A – Z by Hans Ambrosi (with permission from Gräfe und Unzer Verlag, Munich). Serges Medien, Cologne 2001, page 890, wine lexicon, article "Wine-growing zones in the European Union"
- Frank Schoonmaker: Das Wein-Lexikon, Die Weine der Welt, 1978 (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag), ISBN 3-596-21872-1 , page 240, article "Viticulture zones"
