Winemeister

Italy is next to France the world's largest producer of wine. It contributes about 20 percent of the world's production. In addition to their sizable domestic market, Italian wines command the largest share of foreign wines in the [United States], the most important export market for Italy. Because of its geography, Italy has wine growing regions almost in the entire country - the southern latitude along with the tempering influence of the Mediterranean sea and the mountains and foothills provide an almost ideal geography for growing wine.

The Italian wine industry has a self-imposed quality control system similar to the [AOC] system in France or the [QdP] system in Germany. The Italian version is ministry of agriculture distinguishes between 120 wine growing zones ("Indicazione Geografica Tipica" or [IGT]). Within these zones, there are 311 subregions that fall under the DOC or "Denominazione di Origine Controllata" system, which defines rules for regional origin but also for grape varieties and wine making methods. In addition there are 32 DOCG or "Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita" subregions that adhere to an even stricter quality control system - the main difference is that under the DOCG rules, each wine is also subject to a blind taste test.

To make matters even more complicated, you may also find the name of the political region a wine was grown in on an Italian wine label. So you could have a wine that tells you that it is from the "Alto Adige" region (a political entity) or the "Valpolicella" region (an IGT defined region) or that it is an "Amarone" wine (a DOCG definition within Valpolicella). For details on reading Italian wine labels see [How to read an Italian wine label].