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Tuscan Wines:
Classification and Reading Labels
When choosing your Tuscan wine, looking at the label is one of the first things you will do. You will notice the year, the winery, the type of wine, and some initials. When you travel through Tuscany and participate in wine tastings, we recommend you bring a notebook and take notes of the wines you like so you will know where to find them again.
There are 4 classifications of Tuscan Wines;
VdT (Vino di Tavola) which translates as Table Wine
IGT (Vino a Indicazione Geografica) which simply means wine produced in a specific area
DOC (Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata) is a control that guides specific wine making rules in specific regions.
DOCG (Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) A more strict quality control
Vino di Tavola is generally considered a lesser wine, sort of a home-grown version using blends of lesser grapes. Most VdT wines are thin, acidic, and weak, the type of wine you can find in a box. But sometimes a VdT can be absolutely spectacular, if not adherent to the standards that make a good DOC or DOCG. Antinori makes a magnificent Tignanello, which contains too much Cabernet to qualify as a Chianti Classico. The best VdT wines are produced in Tuscany, blending Sangiovese grapes with Cabernets and Merlots, or using French grapes alone. Many of the Super Tuscans are VdT wines. VdT’s are somewhat of a crapshoot, either you get something fantastic, or you get something terrible. Let your wine guide help you choose which VdT to sample, you might be wonderfully surprised.
Vino a Indicazione Geografica is a fairly new designation, incepted in 1992 as a midway for wines that didn’t make DOC standards, but were characteristic of a particular region. Marginally better than VdT, with slightly more controls (IGT wines have to be produced in a particular region, whereas VdT grapes can come from just about anywhere), this is another crapshoot as far as quality goes, it could be fantastic, it could be the worst thing you ever tasted. Let your guide or your trusty wine importer help you choose a good one.
Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata is a more stringent control developed in the 1960’s in order to preserve traditional wine making techniques in various regions. In order for a Chianti to be called a Chianti, it must be produced in the Chianti region. A winemaker in another region may use the same percentage of Sangiovese and other grapes and use the same techniques, but cannot be called a Chianti.
Vino a Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita is a more stringent qualification of the DOC wines, each wine must pass a tasting panels approval before it can be bottled. Tuscany produces six of the 24 Italian wines that have attained DOCG status, including the white wine Vernaccia di San Gimignano.
Appellation
The country or region the grapes for this wine were grown. In Italy, the appellation for DOC and DOCG wines are strictly controlled by the government, but some allow for up to 15% of grapes to be grown outside the region.
Vintage
The year in which the grapes were harvested. Italian wines may have the term “Vendemmia”, which is the Italian word for vintage. This is important to note, because you want to purchase a wine from an excellent, high quality (not necessarily quantity) harvest.
Variety
The types of grapes used. In most Italian wines, this may not be mentioned, because strict government controls only allow the use of certain grapes, namely Sangiovese and clones.
Estate
If the wine is bottled on the estate where the grapes were grown, it will disclose this on the label. Many of the better wineries bottle on the estate, although some wonderful Vino di Tavola or Vino a Indicazione Geografica may be made from wines grown on different vineyards, and will bear the term “Cantina Sociale” or “Cantina Cooperativa”.
Cantina Sociale
A cooperative of grape growers whose grapes are used to produce wine. |
