Australia
The law requires the area of
origin to be named and for the label to list the grape type(s). For
any area name to be used, 85% must come from that area. If only one
grape is listed, 85% must be from that grape. If a blend of grape
types, they must be listed in descending order.
France
The law defines (1) French table
wine, (2) vin du pays and (3) Appellation contrôlée
wines. There are few controls on "French Table Wine." The grapes
should be grown in France instead of being imported from Algeria.
Vin du Pays wine (to bear that
designation) must be from a delineated "pays" or countryside. D'oc is
one seen quite often. The quality of these wines covers a wide range
and depends on what the winemaker is trying to do. Because a vin du
pays wine does not (generally) demand as high a price as an Appellation
Contrôlée wine, they
often represent extremely good values.
Appellation contrôlée
wines are the ones with the tightest controls. And the controls get
tighter the smaller the region name. Hence, "Appellation contrôlée
Bordeaux" has looser controls than "Bordeaux Supérieur
contrôlée, which has
looser controls than the Medoc contrôlée
, and so forth. Within the Medoc are the Paulliac, Margaux, St-Estèphe
and other small regions where the great Chateaus exist. An example of
strict controls is the maximum yield that a winery is permitted to have.
Maximum yield is specified so that vineyardists will cut back their vines to
meet that control on their yield and as a result will have a higher quality
wine. This can on rare occasions result in some interesting situations.
Suppose that Ch. Lafite Rothschild. in Paulliac, can make only x cases
of wine but because of excellent growing conditions their yield is such that
they have x + C cases of wine. This results in x cases of Lafite
Rothschild and C cases of a wine by some other name--but just as good as the
Lafite that year!
Greece
Italy-
In 1963, Italy passed a wine law,
and in 1992 they added Indicazione Geografica Tipica to make it more like
French wine law. So they now have Vino da Tavola, (2) Indicazione
Geografica Tipica, (3) Denominazione di Origine Controllata and (4)
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita.
-
Vino da Tavola-Table wines with
few controls (no grape name, no vintage)
-
Indicazione Geografica
Tipica-The IGT (roughly translated, Typical of the Place Indicated) was
defined in 1992 because much of Italy's wine is like the French Vin du
Pays or German Landwein. It must tell the region it comes
from and it may list a vintage and/or grape type.
-
Denominazione di Origine
Controllata-DOC wines (Name of Origin is Controlled) must be registered by
the government and must meet approved planting, cultivating and
fertilizing methods and can be spot-checked by the government at any time.
-
Denominazione di Origine
Controllata e Garantita--DOCG wines have to meet all of the DOC
requirements plus guaranting that everything on the label (origin, net
contents, grower's name and place and alcohol strength. DOCG wines
can not only have production methods checked (as with DOC wines) but can
also have the wine spot-checked.
New Zealand
Portugal
Spain
United States
