Italian wine classification

The Ancient Greeks were so impressed with the fertile land that they decided to import vines and give the land the name Oenotria, which means “land of wine”.

It only seems fitting that a culture with Dionysus, the god of wine, would be the ones to see the winemaking potential in a new country.

We must also pay homage to the Etruscans, a group of people who settled in Central Italy, for founding the wine industry of modern day Tuscany and for being incredibly ahead of their time when it came to winemaking technology. The Etruscans took the grapevine introduced by the Greeks, cultivated it into highly desirable wines, and considerably improved on winemaking.

 Now Italy is home to some of the oldest wine producing regions in the world and is one of the largest wine producer


Italian wine classification:

DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) – highest classification. It denotes controlled production methods and guaranteed wine quality. There are strict rules governing the production of DOCG wines

DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) is the main tier of wine classification, and covers almost every traditional Italian wine style

IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica)  focuses on the region of origin

Vino da Tavola: means ‘table wine’, represents the most basic level of Italian wine

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