A Question About Italian Wine Labels

----- Original Message ----- From: "cruciverbalist" Newsgroups: alt.food.wine Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 4:16 PM Subject: A Question About Italian Wine Labels Jack: you are about to dive into one of the most confusing labeling systems known to man....Italy..... (my appologies in advance to Italians, but DAMN...you guys make it tough). One of the downsides of having a new Govt. every 9 months or so.

one of two different appellation notations can be found

D.O.C. & I.G.T. These are not specific appelations as such. They denote (in a general way & I'm sure I'll spark debate & clarification) 'quality' levels. These qualifiers denote what classification the wines fall under... Like the V.Q.A in Canada & A.O.C. in France. D.O.C. is Supposed to garuntee a certain level of quality (This is highly debatable) the next level is D.O.C.G. (auruntia) in theory, is a guarunteed level of quality. But, more importantly... The D.O.C. laws also dictate what grape varietals may be used in the vinting process. These have been resrticted to traditional Italian grapes..... The I.G.T. classification (Goria's Law) Was created to encompass quality wines that were being made with international (ie. Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah) Varietals, which did not fit the D.O.C. rules. VOLUMES, have been written about these laws & Italian wine labeling.... Far too much to get into here, now, after 4 glasses of Burrowing Owl Cabernet. I hope this at least covers the basics to your (& the news group's) satisfaction.

En Vino Veritas Mathew

Ciò che ha detto Mathew Kagis ( snipped-for-privacy@telus.net) è così interessante, che devo dire la mia:

No, in reality absolutely no relation with quality.

These qualifiers denote what

Yes, the D.O.C.G. should guarantee more controls on quality, adding to the D.O.C. a tasting examination.

False, a lot of international grapes exist into many D.O.C. Every region has a list of grapes admitted for labeling a wine as IGT. If your wine is made of one (or more than one) of this grapes (traditional or international), you can label it as IGT. The label DOC means that a written "recipe" exists for making a certain wine in a certain way, with certain grapes (also international sure) ageing it (or not ageing it) in (or outside) wood barrels and so on. If you respect all these rules you can label it as DOC. A lot of famous Italian wine are IGT exactly because the DOC recipe seems to many people too restrictive to enhance the possibility of a wine.

Luk

Luk speaks the truth.

D.O.C. is a designation which imposes a formula of how the wines are to be made, according to custom (and obviously, geographical specificity, which is a given).

Some varieties of grapes which were not native Italian can be used, but up to very circum-proscribed limits.

Basically, a D.O.C wine has to be classically "Italian" in character.

I.G.T. opens the floodgates for experimentation, and yet it still carries an acknowledgement of legitimacy; legitimacy of intent, if not of quality per se

Does that make sense?

---Bob