Italian wine labels
Compared
to France and Germany, which make sense after a while, deciphering an
Italian label is black magic. Italian wines may be labelled in several
different ways, instead of the region-first rule that dominates most
of Europe.
First, like the rest of Europe, Italian wines may be labelled by the
region they come from. For example, Chianti and Soave are named by the
region.
The wines may also be labelled by the grape variety. Barbera and Pinot
Grigio are grape varieties, and you may see wine labelled as such. Sometimes
you will also see a region designation appended, like d'Asti or di Montalcino.
The wine may also be labelled by a traditional name, which tells you
absolutely nothing. You may see these labelled as "Vino Nobile" because
that's what people have been calling it for hundreds of years. There
are often great stories about how these names came to be, but every
winemaker tells a completely different version, and likely none of them
are true.
You can also find wines with trademarked names, like "Rubesco" or "Summus."
These also mean absolutely nothing except that some marketing weenie
thought it sounded good. Unlike the traditionally-named wines, they
haven't been around as long and can be used by only one producer.
On top of all this, there are the regulatory designations, which can
apply to any of the labelling types above. The regulatory designation
is often the only mark of sanity on the label, but even that doesn't
help much.
The possible designations are: