Category Business and travel in Italy. #iwu_tourism #iwu_travel
Claudia Gaponova, official representative of the International Women’s Union in Italy.
Last time we did an overview of the geographical names of the entire food industry sector. Today we will focus in detail on wines.
I think many people stand for hours in front of the shelves in search of the “best” wine for the evening.
Today we will understand the main categories of types of wine and why you need to pay special attention to the label.
Wine with the name of a wine-producing area on its label must be produced there from grapes grown there and from varieties officially approved for cultivation in this geographical area.
Currently, within the EU, it is customary to divide wines into two main classes-wines:
- vintage wines;
table wines.
However, the situation within each country is, of course, more complicated.
According to Italian law, there are four main categories of wine.
At the head of all is a narrow class of wines marked DOCG-Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita – control and guarantee of the name at the place of origin. These are the most elite of Italian wines that deserve special honor and respect. There are very few of them, this is a closed class that is very slowly but constantly expanding. In 1996, there were only 14 of them, today-about 35.
These wines pass very strict state control, all are tasted, pass laboratory analysis and they are assigned an official number for each bottle, which is certified by a special mark on the neck of the bottle (pink mark for red wines and green for white ones)
The next category of wines is marked DOC-Denominazione di Origine Controllata – control of the name at the place of origin. It includes about 300 different production zones. In this case, we are talking about productive zones, they are the so-called brand of wine. The zone can be represented as a single wine, for example, produced from a single grape variety, or an assemblage or several wines.
Depending on the production technique, these wines have varieties within their brand. italy occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of production of light-sparkling and low-boiling wines. in addition, many wine brands are divided into subgroups according to sugar content and aging. the abbreviations doc and docg always stand under the name of the production zone.
Wine class IGT Indicazione Geografica Tipica-literally – “typical geographical name”, this is a local wine. This category includes wines produced in the wine regions from local grapes. This group formally refers to table wines, but it can include both prestigious and expensive wines. These wines can not get a certificate of vintage, because they are produced with a “violation” of the regulations for the production of wines within their territory, or the varietal composition is changed, or the land plots are not historically included in a particular productive zone. However, it is worth noting that the state control over the quality of these wines is very high.
vino da tavola ( vdt) – table wine. Previously, these wines were not bottled and were used mainly as a component for the production of inexpensive mass-produced wines. In 1995, there were changes in the Italian wine legislation and, thus, wines of this category received the right to bottle, while the mandatory information for indicating on the label is the name of the manufacturer and the color of the wine.
An interesting fact is that some of the most respected winemakers refuse DOC and even DOCG, in order to show, on the one hand, their superiority over other wine producers, with whom they do not want to be in the same group, and on the other – to get the opportunity to develop outside the limits of their legal conditions.
today, there are more than 2,500 varieties of wine in italy. As a result, almost every city in Italy boasts its own wine. i am sure that if any of you have traveled to italy, wherever you are, the locals will definitely treat you to local wine, and maybe even their own production. Really?
during your stay in italy, we will definitely visit a real italian winery, taste the wines of various categories and buy your favorite wine.