Catalonia: Appellations, Sub-regions and Grapes

Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain whose denominations of origin are supervised by the Institut Català de la Vinya i el Vi, known as INCAVI. INCAVI describes itself as an autonomous administrative body of the Generalitat de Catalunya created in 1980, holding the status of a public research centre for viticulture and oenology and acting as the technical advisory body to the regulating councils of the Catalan wine denominations of origin. It keeps two seats, at Vilafranca del Penedès and at Reus. INCAVI states that wine has formed part of the culture, tradition and landscape of Catalonia for more than 2,300 years. INCAVI distinguishes twelve denominations of origin in Catalonia: Alella, Catalunya, Cava, Conca de Barberà, Costers del Segre, Empordà, Montsant, Penedès, Pla de Bages, Priorat, Tarragona and Terra Alta. Almost the whole of Catalan wine production is covered by a denomination of origin, and INCAVI puts the Catalan vineyard at 57,198 hectares in 2020, with 3.2 million hectolitres of wine produced.

• Twelve Catalan denominations of origin listed by INCAVI
• INCAVI created in 1980 as an autonomous administrative body of the Generalitat de Catalunya, with seats at Vilafranca del Penedès and Reus
• 57,198 hectares of Catalan vineyard in 2020 and 3.2 million hectolitres produced (INCAVI)
• More than 2,300 years of wine in the culture, tradition and landscape of Catalonia (INCAVI)

The Catalan denominations run from the Mediterranean shore to the Pyrenean foothills, and INCAVI describes markedly different climates across them. The DO Penedès, between the Barcelona and Tarragona conurbations, is described as temperate Mediterranean, with an afternoon sea breeze, a mean annual temperature between 14 and 16 degrees Celsius and rainfall around 450 litres a year, on land from sea level to a maximum of 800 metres. The DO Empordà, in the north east, is marked by the Tramuntana, a north wind whose gusts often exceed 120 kilometres an hour, with rainfall around 600 litres a year and land from sea level to a maximum of 260 metres. Inland the pattern turns continental. INCAVI describes the DO Costers del Segre as having a dry continental climate with a thermal differential reaching 25 degrees Celsius, rainfall of 385 millimetres a year at Lleida and 450 millimetres in the rest of the zone, and a mean annual insolation of 2,800 hours. The DO Terra Alta, between the Ebro and the Aragonese border, is described as dry Mediterranean with a mean annual temperature between 14.6 and 16.4 degrees Celsius, rainfall between 350 and 450 litres a year, and vines between 350 and 550 metres. In the DOQ Priorat, INCAVI records mild winters with frosts, a strong dry summer period, rainfall usually around 550 millimetres a year and a mean annual temperature between 14 and 16 degrees Celsius.

• DO Penedès: sea level to a maximum of 800 metres, mean annual temperature 14 to 16 degrees Celsius, rainfall around 450 litres a year (INCAVI)
• DO Empordà: the Tramuntana north wind gusts often above 120 kilometres an hour, rainfall around 600 litres a year, land from sea level to 260 metres (INCAVI)
• DO Costers del Segre: dry continental, thermal differential reaching 25 degrees Celsius, 2,800 hours of mean annual insolation (INCAVI)
• DO Terra Alta: mean annual temperature 14.6 to 16.4 degrees Celsius, rainfall 350 to 450 litres a year, vines between 350 and 550 metres (INCAVI)
• DOQ Priorat: rainfall usually around 550 millimetres a year, mean annual temperature 14 to 16 degrees Celsius (INCAVI)
• DO Conca de Barberà: vineyard altitudes between 350 and 900 metres, mean annual temperature 13 to 14 degrees Celsius, rainfall 450 to 550 millimetres (INCAVI)

INCAVI lists twelve Catalan denominations of origin. The DOQ Priorat is the only qualified denomination of origin in Catalonia. INCAVI dates the creation of the DO Priorat to a ministerial order of 1932, the first regulation to 1954, the grant of qualified denomination of origin status to 2000 and the current DOQ regulation to 2006. The DO Penedès was created by an order of the Minister of Agriculture published in the Gaceta de Madrid on November 23, 1933, with its regulating council constituted by an order of July 28, 1958. The right to a denomination of origin for the wines of the DO Tarragona was recognised in 1933 with the Estatut del Vi, its regulating council was constituted in 1945, and its first regulation, approved in 1947, protected only the liqueur wines known as Tarragona Clàssics. The remaining denominations arrived across the second half of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first. INCAVI records the DO Alella as created by an order of December 22, 1955, the DO Empordà-Costa Brava as approved in 1975 by an order of May 19, 1975, the DO Terra Alta as recognised provisionally in 1972 and officially in 1982, the DO Conca de Barberà as having its first regulation and regulating council approved by an order of November 19, 1985, and the DO Costers del Segre as constituted by an order of May 28, 1986. The name cava was reserved in 1986 for sparkling wines made by the traditional method in the cava region, and the regulation of the protected designation of origin Cava and its regulating council was published in 1991. The DO Pla de Bages was recognised by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1995, the DO Catalunya was created in 1999 by an order of June 22, and the DO Montsant was born in 2001, its founding regulation published in the Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya on November 5, 2001.

• DOQ Priorat: DO created by ministerial order in 1932, qualified denomination of origin status granted in 2000, current regulation approved in 2006 (INCAVI)
• DO Penedès: created by an order published in the Gaceta de Madrid on November 23, 1933 (INCAVI)
• DO Tarragona: denomination of origin right recognised in 1933 under the Estatut del Vi, regulating council constituted in 1945 (INCAVI)
• DO Costers del Segre: constituted by an order of May 28, 1986, with the geographic scope defined in seven subzones by Order 297/2005 of June 20, 2005 (INCAVI)
• DO Cava: name reserved in 1986, protected designation of origin regulation and regulating council published in 1991 (INCAVI)
• DO Catalunya created in 1999 and DO Montsant born in 2001 (INCAVI)

Two Catalan sub-regions have their own hub pages in this wiki. The figures below come from INCAVI and from each regulating council.

• Priorat: the DOQ Priorat sits in the south of Catalonia, inland in the southern part of the Serralada Prelitoral, and covers the whole of nine municipalities of the central Priorat comarca, Bellmunt del Priorat, Gratallops, el Lloar, la Morera de Montsant, Poboleda, Porrera, Torroja del Priorat, la Vilella Alta and la Vilella Baixa, plus half of two others, with twelve viticultural production units delimited inside it. The regulating council names the twelve grape-growing zones as the villages plus the zones of Masos de Falset and Solanes del Molar. INCAVI gives a total denomination territory of 17,633 hectares, of which nearly 3,000 are excluded from the production zone and 2,088 are currently planted to vine, at altitudes running between 60 and 700 metres. The ground is llicorella, the local name for the slate that makes up practically 90 percent of the subsoil of the denomination's villages. INCAVI puts average production at 5 million bottles from about a hundred wineries, with exports close to 70 percent of production, and the regulating council states that 116 wineries make the wines of the DOQ Priorat. Read more at /winewiki/priorat-doq.
• Costers del Segre: the DO Costers del Segre lies at the western edge of Catalonia in the province of Lleida, taking in 60 municipalities across 10 Lleida comarques with an approximate surface of 4,000 hectares. Order 297/2005 of June 20, 2005 defines its geographic scope in seven subzones, Artesa de Segre, Urgell, Garrigues, Pallars Jussà, Raimat, Segrià and Valls del Riu Corb. Vines are planted between 200 and 1,100 metres, and four of the seven subzones are considered to practise mountain viticulture, on calcareous and clay soils poor in organic matter. INCAVI records some 120,000 hectares of vine in the judicial districts of Lleida province in the last third of the nineteenth century before phylloxera, a fall to 2,500 hectares after it, and about 4,000 hectares today. Read more at /winewiki/costers-del-segre-do.

INCAVI does not publish a single Catalonia-wide varietal ranking, but it names the dominant and predominant varieties denomination by denomination. Garnatxa and Carinyena are the recommended red varieties of the DOQ Priorat, where Garnatxa blanca is the most widespread white. The DO Montsant names Garnatxa blanca, Macabeu, Garnatxa negra and Carinyena as its four historic and predominant varieties, together accounting for more than 65 percent of the denomination's vineyards, and records that more than 90 percent of its grape production is of red varieties. In the DO Terra Alta, Garnatxa blanca, Garnatxa negra and Garnatxa peluda are the predominant varieties, and together with Macabeu and Carinyena they make up three quarters of the planted area; INCAVI states that 33 percent of the world's Garnatxa blanca is grown in the Terra Alta, which represents 75 percent of Spanish production and 90 percent of Catalan Garnatxa blanca. On the coastal and inland plains the classic white trio dominates. Xarel·lo, Macabeu and Parellada are the dominant white varieties of the DO Penedès, whose dominant native reds are Ull de llebre, Carinyena or Samsó and Sumoi. The DO Cava authorises the white varieties Macabeu, Xarel·lo, Subirat Parent, Parellada and Chardonnay and the red varieties Trepat, Monastrell, Garnatxa and Pinot Noir. In the DO Conca de Barberà the dominant red is the local Trepat and the dominant whites are Macabeu and Parellada, with Trepat, Macabeu and Parellada occupying 70 percent of the region's vineyard area. In the DO Costers del Segre the predominant traditional whites are Macabeu and Parellada alongside the adapted Chardonnay, and the most planted reds are Ull de llebre and Cabernet Sauvignon. Carinyena, with Garnatxa negra known locally as Lledoner, forms the base of viticulture in the DO Empordà.

• DOQ Priorat: Garnatxa and Carinyena are the recommended red varieties, Garnatxa blanca the most widespread white (INCAVI)
• DO Terra Alta: 33 percent of the world's Garnatxa blanca, 75 percent of Spanish production and 90 percent of Catalan Garnatxa blanca (INCAVI)
• DO Montsant: Garnatxa blanca, Macabeu, Garnatxa negra and Carinyena account for more than 65 percent of the denomination's vineyards (INCAVI)
• DO Conca de Barberà: Trepat, Macabeu and Parellada occupy 70 percent of the region's vineyard area (INCAVI)
• DO Penedès: Xarel·lo, Macabeu and Parellada are the dominant white varieties (INCAVI)
• DO Cava authorises Macabeu, Xarel·lo, Subirat Parent, Parellada and Chardonnay for whites and Trepat, Monastrell, Garnatxa and Pinot Noir for reds (INCAVI)

According to INCAVI, the Catalan viticultural surface totalled 57,198 hectares in 2020 and 3.2 million hectolitres of wine were produced. INCAVI reports that in 2019 a total of 100.8 million bottles were commercialised, with turnover of 314.8 million euros and an average price of 3.123 euros a bottle, 5 percent less sold than in 2018 while the price a bottle rose 1 percent. The same INCAVI figures put the Catalan market at almost 47 percent of the wine made in Catalonia under a denomination of origin, with 17 percent going to the rest of Spain, 23 percent to Europe and 13 percent to third countries; INCAVI notes that these data were drawn from 611 wineries covering every Catalan denomination of origin except DO Alella and DO Cava. Individual denominations report their own volumes to INCAVI. The DO Catalunya covers 41,426 hectares across 426 municipalities and commercialises more than 50 million bottles a year, more than 50 percent of Catalan wine carrying a denomination of origin. The DO Cava has 37,955 hectares of registered vineyard, and 132 of the 159 municipalities of the DOP Cava are in Catalonia. INCAVI puts average production at 18,000,000 bottles for the DO Penedès, 5 million bottles for the DOQ Priorat, 65,000 hectolitres for the DO Empordà, 8,500 hectolitres for the DO Conca de Barberà and 7,500 hectolitres for the DO Pla de Bages.

• According to INCAVI, 57,198 hectares of Catalan vineyard in 2020 and 3.2 million hectolitres of wine produced
• According to INCAVI, 100.8 million bottles commercialised in 2019 for 314.8 million euros, an average of 3.123 euros a bottle
• According to INCAVI, almost 47 percent of Catalan denomination of origin wine is sold in the Catalan market, 17 percent in the rest of Spain, 23 percent in Europe and 13 percent in third countries
• According to INCAVI, DO Catalunya covers 41,426 hectares across 426 municipalities and commercialises more than 50 million bottles a year
• According to INCAVI, DO Cava counts 37,955 hectares of registered vineyard
• According to INCAVI, average production is 18,000,000 bottles in the DO Penedès and 5 million bottles in the DOQ Priorat

Primary sources (INCAVI, the Institut Català de la Vinya i el Vi, and the regulating councils of the Catalan denominations of origin): https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/sobre-incavi/que-fem, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-priorat, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-costers-del-segre, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-penedes, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-cava, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-catalunya, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-emporda, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-montsant, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-terra-alta, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-alella, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-conca-de-barbera, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-pla-de-bages, https://incavi.gencat.cat/ca/coneix-el-vi-catala/denominacions-dorigen-catalanes/do-tarragona, https://www.doqpriorat.org/en/, https://www.doqpriorat.org/en/doq-priorat/the-villages/, https://www.costersdelsegre.es/en/. Last verified 2026-09-16.