Seal of quality for Italian wines

What does IGT mean?

Italian wines have quality seals that are identified by the abbreviations IGT, DOC and DOCG. The lowest level is IGT, written Indicazione Geografica Tipica, which corresponds to the French Vin de Pays, i.e. country wine. Since 1992, wines have been able to carry this seal and the geographical origin combined with a grape variety on the label. Examples from our range are Lambrusco Frizzante Emilia IGT, Sangiovese di Toscana Torrae del Sale IGT 2006 and Firriato Chiaramonte Rosso Sicilia IGT. The seal shows a blue dot with the letters “IGT” in ochre yellow, surrounded by an ochre yellow ring, which in turn shows the letters “Indicazione Geografica Tipica” in blue. This is surrounded by a blue serrated edge.

Torrae del Sale, an IGT wine from Tuscany

DOC wines from Italy

The abbreviation DOC stands for Denominazione di origine controllata, or controlled designation of origin. In addition to wine, other agricultural products such as cheese are also awarded this label. This Italian seal was created along the lines of the French AOC seal. Wines from Italy with this seal are of a higher quality than IGT wines. These wines may only be bottled in bottles with a volume of five liters or less. Examples from our range, some of which also bear the region of origin in their name, are Casa Defra Merlot del Veneto DOC, Librandi Cirò Rosato 2008 DOC Calabria, Medici Ermete Lambrusco Reggiano Dolce DOC and Araldica Barolo Revello DOC 2004. The growing region is also indicated on the pink paper band on the neck of the bottle.

The DOC wine Araldica Barolo.

DOCG in Italy

The highest quality level for wines from Italy is DOCG. The abbreviation can be broken down into Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. The special thing about these wines is that they are subject to state control before being bottled. They must be bottled in their production area and therefore may not be transported in tanks for bottling. There are 37 DOCG areas in Italy, including Barolo in Piedmont, Soave in Veneto, Chianti in Tuscany and Cerasuolo di Vittoria in Sicily. As in the case of Chianti, these regions can be divided into further sub-regions. These wines also bear the pink paper ring on the neck. Our range of DOCG wines from Italy includes the white Gavi La Luciana DOCG 2007 from Piedmont and the red wines Peppoli Chianti Classico DOCG and Le Corti Chianti Classico DOCG 2006 from Tuscany.