Who's Wine-ing?

              During our tour of the vineyard in Frascati our host mentioned quite a few times that there are three main classifications for wine certification, DOC, DOCG and IGT, and that their wine was DOCG certified. These certifications are determined by strict regulations that are to be followed in order to guarantee the quality and authenticity of the wine. These laws require the wine to be made with certain grapes, the alcohol content to be at a specific level and the time that the wine is aged to be designated to a certain time.

                 DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) must follow the strictest regulations in order to produce their wine. DOCG is the most traditional wine production, in order to qualify as a DOCG wine the government is required to evaluate, analyze, and taste the wine before they can even be bottled. While this is the most traditional and typically the highest quality of wines, there are only about 75 registered DOCG wines due to low yields and strenuous restrictions.

                 DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) is much more commonly found as the regulations are slightly more generous. While these wines are produced in specific regions, follow traditional wine making production, and specific wine making stratecies specific to the region as well as the type of wine.

                 IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) was created shortly after DOC and DOCG in order to accommodate and classify the growers that do not meet the regulations of DOC/DOCG. IGT was created after the VdT changed their laws to prohibit them from putting a vintage on the wines. IDT wines are now the formerly labeled VdT wines with an addition of other regulations to create a slightly higher quality wine than the VdT. This new law pushed VdT wines to the bottom of the chain and they are now more commonly known and used as table wines.

-T's & G's, Erika