Italy is one of the best known countries in the world for its rich food and wine heritage, protected from the risk of fraud and counterfeiting to the detriment of consumers thanks to the Denominations. There are two types of denomination for wines: DOC (Controlled Designation of Origin) and DOCG (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin).
To identify a DOC wine from one without this recognition, it is enough to read its data in the band placed between the neck of the bottle and the cap, where the DOC mark and a number affixed on the card by the State Printing and Mint Institute are indicated. which allows you to trace the bottle back to the origin.
DOC wines follow a strict disciplinary: they must be produced in a specific area, which can be traced back to a territory, but also to a country, a hamlet or even a vineyard, delimited by specific roads. The wines must come from areas already certified with the IGT (Protected Geographical Indication) mark for at least 5 years, which must have been claimed by at least 35% of the winemakers interested in making the wine DOC; moreover they must represent at least 35% of the production of the affected area. The disciplinary followed by DOC wines is more restrictive than that followed by IGT wines: in the same way, DOCG wines must follow an even more conditioning disciplinary than those with the DOC brand, because of higher quality.
The disciplinary that regulates the production of DOC wines is structured in different parts: denomination and wines, where the name of the wine and its type, the ampelography base, the production area, the rules for viticulture and the rules for the winemaking. In addition, there are also other distinctive parameters, such as consumer characteristics, designation and presentation, packaging and finally the link with the geographical environment. Following, the methods of maintaining the vines are described, namely pruning, density and irrigation; in addition, the minimum alcoholic strength by volume of the grapes is also described. Subsequently, the winemaking areas, the method of obtaining the wine and its yield per hectare of vine are shown. The characteristics for consumption, on the other hand, describe the chemical-physical and organoleptic characteristics of each type of wine produced from the vines of the DOC production area: the color and also its specific shade, aroma and flavor, which cannot be different from as reported in the specification; in addition, the minimum alcoholic strength by volume and its minimum total acidity are also marked.
The DOCG designation (Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin) identifies wines that must correspond to certain characteristics: grapes from DOC production areas for at least 10 years and must affect the economic sustainability of the protected territory, i.e. 51% of those who manage vineyards they must have claimed it. This denomination is more restrictive than the DOC: for example, DOCG wine undergoes 2 tests, the second of which is carried out during the bottling phase. Furthermore, the vintage of the wine must always be indicated on the label (this rule does not apply to sparkling wines, semi-sparkling and fortified wines).
To recognize the purchase of a DOCG wine from another wine without a denomination, it is necessary to check the cork of the bottle: in fact, a pink seal is placed around the cork on which a number that recognizes the bottle of wine is noted, in addition of course to the DOCG brand. . The disciplinary that a wine must follow to obtain the DOCG mark must consist of several articles, which describe the characteristics it must have and the rules that must be followed to produce it. First of all, the names and varieties with which the wine is found on the market and the characteristics of each are indicated, such as the type novello, riserva, passito. The areas of origin of the grapes must be indicated, with the specific territory of the vines, indicating the municipality and if necessary also the roads that delimit the vine. Subsequently, the method of production of the wines is indicated, naturally specifying that the grapes harvested in the vines must be transformed into wine on site and not outside the area of origin. Finally, there are the organoleptic characteristics of the wine, both in terms of color, and the flavor and aroma that distinguish it.
