Agriculture climate layer

Grape Ripening Suitability Map

Explore broad grape-ripening suitability based on average growing-season heat accumulation during 2011–2025. The map identifies the latest ripening group that the modeled seasonal GDD₁₀ can generally support and offers optional climate-constraint screening.

Explore Interactive Map General methodology
Source
ERA5-Land
Climate period
2011–2025 grape-climate climatology
Representation
Ripening class and seasonal GDD₁₀

What this map shows

The base map classifies each grid cell by the latest grape ripening group supported by its average growing-season Growing Degree Days above 10 °C (GDD₁₀). Classes range from Not suitable through very early-, early-, mid-season, and late-ripening groups.

The heat-based class is a broad climate screen rather than a recommendation for a specific cultivar or vineyard. Optional filters can mark cells that fail the selected winter-cold or growing-season precipitation requirement without recalculating the underlying GDD₁₀ class.

How it is calculated

MetriClima derives monthly GDD₁₀ from ERA5-Land daily mean 2 m air temperature, using a 10 °C base. It sums April through October in the Northern Hemisphere and October through April in the Southern Hemisphere, then classifies the 2011–2025 climatological total.

The current thresholds are below 850 GDD₁₀ for Not suitable, 850–1199 for very early-ripening, 1200–1449 for early-ripening, 1450–1649 for mid-season, and at least 1650 for late-ripening. Available filters compare extreme minimum temperature and growing-season precipitation with user-selected requirements.

Data source

MetriClima processes ERA5-Land surface data on the 0.1° latitude–longitude download grid. The physical spacing of this geographic grid varies with latitude. ERA5-Land is a land-surface reanalysis dataset providing consistent hourly climate variables.

This layer combines monthly GDD₁₀, monthly precipitation totals, and annual minimum-temperature summaries. All inputs use a consistent 2011–2025 source period before the heat class and optional constraint attributes are generated.

Provider
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), produced by ECMWF

Climate period and representation

2011–2025 grape-climate climatology

The map summarizes 15 complete years. Seasonal GDD₁₀ and precipitation use hemisphere-specific seven-month windows; the winter-cold filter uses the extreme minimum-temperature summary for the same source period.

Ripening class and seasonal GDD₁₀

Five categorical map classes represent increasing growing-season heat. Location details also report the underlying mean seasonal GDD₁₀, while active constraints can include a cell in the combined Not suitable result.

How to interpret the map

A warmer class indicates sufficient modeled seasonal heat for progressively later-ripening grape groups. It does not mean that every variety in that group will ripen successfully or produce a desired wine style.

Constraint flags should be read separately from the base heat class. A location can have enough seasonal heat but still be flagged for the selected winter-cold tolerance or natural-precipitation requirement.

Applications

  • Broad regional screening for grape ripening potential
  • Comparing seasonal heat accumulation between locations
  • Exploring winter-cold tolerance and water-management scenarios
  • Identifying locations that merit cultivar-specific and site-level assessment

Limitations

  • The fixed seven-month seasons and class thresholds are broad screening assumptions and do not model cultivar-specific phenology, harvest targets, or year-to-year ripening reliability.
  • Growing-season precipitation is a rainfall proxy, not a climatic water balance; evapotranspiration, soil water storage, irrigation capacity, and vine demand are not modeled.
  • Soil, slope, aspect, drainage, disease pressure, canopy management, and local cold-air behavior are outside the current classification.
  • The ERA5-Land grid smooths fine vineyard-scale terrain and microclimates, so local observations and professional assessment remain essential.

Explore this map by country

Open Grape Ripening Suitability for a country to start the same interactive map focused on that geography.

Africa (54)
Asia (50)
Australia (14)
Europe (47)
North America (24)
South America (12)