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Wines of Italy

Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC)


Denominazione di origine controllata is an Italian quality assurance label for food products and especially wines (an appellation). It is modelled after the French AOC. It was instituted in 1963 and overhauled in 1992 for compliance with the equivalent EU law on Protected Designation of Origin, which came into effect that year.

There are two levels of labels:

DOC — Denominazione di Origine Controllata
DOCG — Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita

Both require that a food product be produced within the specified region using defined methods and that it satisfies a defined quality standard. DOCG regions are subterritories of DOC regions that produce outstanding products that may be subject to more stringent production and quality standards than the same products from the surrounding DOC region. The need for a DOCG identification arose when the DOC denomination was, in the view of many Italian food industries, given too liberally to different products. A new, more restrictive identification was then created, as similar as possible to the previous one so that buyers could still recognize it, but qualitatively different.

Italian legislation additionally regulates the use of the following qualifying terms for wines:

Classico: is reserved for wines produced in the region where a particular type of wine has been produced "traditionally". For the Chianti classico, this "traditional region" is defined by a decree from July 10, 1932.
Riserva: may be used only for wines that have been aged at least two years longer than normal for a particular type of wine.

NOTES: Wine country of Italy, information on all 20 Italian Wine regions, Italian wine, Italian recipes, food and wine pairing, wineries, importers, exporters, quality wine.

Characteristics

Important wine-relevant geographic characteristics of Italy include:
The extensive lattitudinal range of the country permits wine growing from the Alps in the north to almost within sight of Africa in the south
The fact that Italy is a peninsula with a long shoreline, contributing moderating climate to coastal wine regions
The extensive mountains and foothills providing a range of altitudes for grape growing and a variety of climate and soil conditions

Italy wine

Good and excelent wines are found in the historical wine countries as in the new ones.
Peaceful, welcoming landscapes or dramatic, rough ones, as well as venerable coltural heritages, enrich most continents.
Tasty, various, and healthy cuisines belong, instead, only to few lucky countries.
But few, gifted places offer a balance of all of that at once, and of that old fashined art of living.