DOC, DOCG, ITG and Table Wines
The Italian Wine Pyramid
The Italian wine classification system was born out of both necessity and pride. In the 1950s, the European Common Market, a treaty and trade organization that existed before the European Union, classified Italian wines as strong wines to be blended with other European wines. This gave Italian wines a second-class image in relation to their French and German counterparts. In 1963, in order to increase the quality of and respect for its wines, the Italian government created a system of controlling and naming wines that was modeled after the French AOC wine laws. The system was called DOC, which stands for "denominazione di origine controllata" (controlled denomination of origin).
The area in which a wine must be produced is called a DOC and can include all the vineyards in an entire region or only a few vineyards within a region. DOC also refers to a specific wine and its varieties. For example, one DOC or DOCG label such as Asti DOCG can specify several types of wine: Moscato d'Asti and Asti Spumante. The wines under these labels have standards for their grape varieties, color, aroma, flavor, alcohol content, acidity, period of aging and maximum yield that they must meet. These standards are determined by the growers in a specific DOC and must be approved by the national DOC committee in Rome.
In 1980, the DOCG wine label was added to classify certain DOC wines. DOCG stands for "denominazione di origine controllata e garantita" (controlled and guaranteed designation of origin).
DOCG wines must adhere to more strict regulations than DOC wines, including a specific bottle size, lower allowed yield, required tasting checks and in-depth chemical analyses. DOCG wines have an official small, pink, numbered seal at the top of the bottle that fits over the cork. In order to earn this classification, a wine must have a DOC label for at least five years. Today there are 25 DOCG labels.
In 1992, the Italian government added another classification to this system-IGT.
IGT stands for "indicazione geografica tipica" (typical geographic indications). These wines are produced in a specific area, which may be a region or province, that is typically larger than a DOC zone.They must use approved grape varieties, but regulations on color, flavor and yield are not as strict as the DOC.
Table wines (vini da tavola) are the last characterization of wines. These wines do not specify the grape variety, vintage or place of origin on their label. They are the wines that do not fit into any other category. They do not conform to DOC regulations on grape types or vinification techniques. Some worldwide critics feel that some of the most exciting and adventurous wines fall into this category, but other wines are not as high quality as DOC, DOCG or IGT wines.
Each Italian wine today falls into on of the four levels of a pyramid, with DOCG at the top, followed by DOC, IGT and vini da tavola at the bottom.
