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About Italian Wine

Italian wine is the world greatest wine produce beating all its counterpart from France, Spain, United States and other regions. Almost all the mountainous regions in Italy are used for Italian wine growing activities, from the north stretches to the south. Italian wine growing environments are unique as well as varied. Some vineyards thrive high in the mountains. The altitude seems to protect the vines from the withering heat of the lowlands. In fact, the only wines in the world made on the slopes of an active volcano are the white wines of Mount Etna.

One very special part of Italian wine grape varieties —such as Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Barbera are giving outstanding performances only on their native soils – Italy.

Italian Wine History

For a long time it was believed by archaeologists that cultivation of the vine was introduced by the Greeks in the centuries before the rise of ihe Roman Empire. It is now thought that some tribal cultures, notably the Etruscans already possessed the wine making knowledge and that the Greeks only introduce new vine varieties when they arrived. Whatever the case it may be, the name given by the Greeks to the new territories (Rome) was "Oenotria" - land of wine.

Italian Wine Regulations

Although Italian wine making exist more than three millennia ago, it was until 1960s that Italy starts a formal system of wine classification. Even up till today, Italian wine still lacks the system of wine classification, unlike anything of the French "Cru" system.

Italian Wine System

In Italian wine, DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, the exact Italian equivalent of the French Appellation d'Origne Controtee, which simply means "controlled place name."

DOC laws control the quality of Italian wines through legal definitions of the various districts, regulating the yields-per-acre, specification of grape varieties, specifications for alcohol content, and minimum requirements for cask aging. The terms "Superiore," "Riserva," and "Classico," which appear on wine labels, took on legal significance.

Look for the phrase Denomitiazione di Origine Controllata on the label which range from table wines to super-premium.

13 Italian wines have earned the respected Denomtnazione di Origine Controttata e Garantita (DOCG) designation - the super-premium quality category.

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