DOC and DOCG
Italy’s law of Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) regulates the production and labeling of a significant share of Italian wine. The law intends to give purchasers of a DOC wine a reasonable expectation that a wine labeled as Barbera d’Alba, for instance, will be both a Barbera d’Alba in fact and in style.
The words Denominazione di Origine Controllata roughly translate as "laws governing the making and naming of wines originating in select areas of Italy." The underlying idea of DOC is to define the regions that produce Italy’s superior wines.
Each DOC does several things to classify the wine made within its borders. Each classification circumscribes its winemaking zone, specifies the grape varieties that are permitted there, prescribes minimal alcohol levels to assure sufficiently ripe grapes and gives maximum yields per hectare to ensure concentration of flavor. Other factors, such as permitted winemaking practices or aging regimens, are also established by a particular DOC.
At present, 303 zones throughout the country carry a DOC designation and 28 carry a higher designation, DOCG (DOC plus G for e Garantita, meaning "and guaranteed"). DOCG imposes more stringent controls on its wines than does DOC.
Above and beyond delimiting winemaking areas of superior quality, DOC and DOCG wines are also categorized in a few ways. They may be classified by type, as in sparkling or semi-sweet wines; by grape variety, as in Pinot Grigio; by age, as in vecchio or riserva; or by sub-classifications, such as classico. These sub-classifications may indicate a region within a DOC/DOCG.
IGT and VDT
Two other designations control the production and labeling of Italian wine—Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) and Vino da Tavola (VDT).
Indicazione Geografica Tipica literally translates as "typical geographic indications" and means that a wine so-named is characteristic, even exemplary, of its wine producing area. Vino da Tavola translates simply as "table wine," but its meaning isn’t so simple.
Like Janus, the two-faced deity, VDT looks in two completely different directions. On the one hand, VDT is the designation for Italy’s inexpensive wines meant for everyday drinking. On the other, VDT is the category that some of the country’s most expensive and rarest wines fall into because they do not fit under existing DOC regulation.
How did this happen? In the recent past, many enterprising Italian winemakers found the DOC laws constricting, so they worked outside of them by using grape varieties not sanctioned by the DOC such as Syrah or Merlot. For example, an all-Merlot wine, made in the Chianti district, did not at one time qualify for oversight under DOC. As a consequence, the sole classification it could use at the time was VDT—"table wine." Despite the fact that its quality and price may have been much higher than other VDT wines.
In 1992, the DOC laws were abridged to address the puzzle of why some of Italy’s best wines were sold under its most humble designation—and partly for that reason, the IGT designation was born. At present, Italy sports 117 IGTs. In concept and force, they equal the French vin de pays or German Landwein appellations.
One perhaps unforeseen benefit of the IGT regulations has been to protect many of Italy’s indigenous and native varieties from dying away from lack of use. Some feel that the promise of Italian wines lies in these native varieties.