Whether you are already a passionate Italian Wine Lover or you are just beginning to dabble in the world of Italian wine, this article is for you!
Had I not lived in Italy, where I was introduced to so many incredible wines, I would never have become a sommelier and gone on to create my life’s passion, La Dolce Vigna Wine + Culture Tour Co. It is, therefore, my absolute pleasure to share with you the following fascinating facts about Italian wine. My hope is that they will inspire you to go outside of your vinous comfort zone, challenge your thoughts about Italian wine and beckon you to explore further!
Leslie Rosa
Sommelier + Founder of La Dolce Vigna Wine + Culture Tour Co.
7 Things You Never Knew About Italian Wine
1. Italy has over 2000 grape varieties!
Nebbiolo Grape Harvest, Piedmont. Photo Credit: La Dolce Vigna
While the number of grapes that goes into Italy’s commercial wine production is much lower—about 350 grape varieties—the number is still staggeringly high. To give you some perspective, France and Spain, two other countries with a long and respected winemaking history only use about 35 and 20 grape varieties respectively for the majority of their wine production. Think of all the flavors and styles awaiting you!
All of Italy’s 20 regions have their own native grapes, each with its own fascinating story—sometimes even legend or myth—of how it came to grow there. As intellectual and TV personality Clifton Fadiman once said, “To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.” Cheers to that!
Interested in a quarterly Italian Wine Club that will introduce you to many of these special grape varieties through thematically-selected wines chosen by a sommelier PLUS cultural swag from the wine regions to help contextualize what’s in your glass? Check out all the perks here: La Dolce Vigna’s Wine + Culture Club.
2. Italy has 330 DOC wines and 75 DOCG wines.
First off, what does DOC and DOCG mean exactly?
DOC stands for Denominzatione di Origine Conrollata (Designation of Origin - Verified) and DOCG means Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (Designation of Origin - Verified and Guaranteed).
Both signify the wines were made in a particular way from grapes grown from a particular place, following the rules of that specific DOC or DOCG. The “guaranteed” of the DOCG title additionally assures buyers that the wine went through rigorous testing to confirm it is what it is supposed to be.
The DOCG status in Italy is the most prestigious. This does NOT mean that you cannot have excellent wines that do not bear these titles, nor can it promise the wine will be good, but it does offer you some security that the wine is authentic to a particular place and abides by a certain typicity.
Because Italy has so many native grapes—many of which have been grown in the same soil for centuries if not millenia—it is important these designations exist to show the diversity and richness of Italian viticulture and winemaking.
Regions with the highest number of DOCG wines are the likely suspects: Piedmont (17), Veneto (14), Tuscany (11). But I think we’ll see a growing number of DOCG wines coming out of other regions, especially Sicily, Campania and Friuli.
3. Italy produces more wine than any other country in the world!
In 2019, Italy produced 47.5 million hl of wine—that’s over 6 billion bottles!!! France follows with 42.1 million hl, then Spain with 33.5 million hl, and the United States comes in fourth at 24.3 million hl.
Other fun facts related to this one:
The average Italian drinks 37 liters of wine (roughly 49 bottles) per year.
About 1/ 50 Italians participate in a grape harvest each year.
4. The Veneto produces just over a third of the entire wine production of Italy!
View from the Veneto. Photo credit: La Dolce Vigna
“Why?” you might wonder. Let’s see, is it…
A) The legacy of the 1,100-year reign of the rowdy and wine-loving Venetian Republic, perhaps?
B) The business prowess of the industrial north?
C) The Veneto’s high percentage of flat and hilly land, ideal for grape-growing?
D) All of the Above
I’m going with D. And, while not all of the wine coming out of the Veneto is quality wine, the Veneto is home to 14 DOCG wines as mentioned above, including Amarone della Valpolicella, Bardolino Superiore, Soave Superiore, and Prosecco from Valdobbiadene, Conegliano and Asolo.
This is where the DOC and DOCG designations can help guide you to the best areas of production. For example, much of prosecco is made in the plains of the Veneto, and can be quite uninteresting and mass-produced, whereas the hilly terrain of Valdobbiadene, Conegliano and Asolo give much more expressive and nuanced prosecchi.
Wine guides such as Slow Wine and Gambero Rosso, which highlight producers who are making quality wines rather than mass-produced plonk, can also come in handy.
Interested in exploring the wine and culture Veneto? Sign up for La Dolce Vigna’s monthly newsletter below and you will be the first to know when the new dates for the Veneto Wine + Culture Tour are released.
5. The Veneto is also home to the most expensive vineyard real estate in Italy!
Cartizze Valley, Valdobbiadene, Veneto. Photo credit: PdC
Yes, you read that right: The most expensive vineyard parcels are not in Piedmont, home of Barolo, nor Tuscany, home of Brunello di Montalcino, but in the Veneto. And, get this: in prosecco country! You wouldn’t think this affordable bubbly would have vineyards with such hefty price tags, but this isn’t just any prosecco. This is Cartizze.
An hour’s drive from Venice brings you to Cartizze Valley, a natural basin at the foot of Cesen Mountain which forms a chain of craggy hills near the town of Valdobbiadene. This 107-hectare area has prices of 1.5 million+ euros per hectare (hectare = about 2.5 acres)!
Why is Cartizze so special? The combination of southern sun exposure, varied soil composition and Alpine breezes allow the vines to develop in a slow and balanced way. The result is the most complex-tasting and expressive prosecco in all the land. Traditionally, it is made Dry (which actually means fairly sweet—but not overly so: the bright acidity helps keep it in check), but you’ll also see Brut (which is one of the drier styles of prosecco).
Cartizze prosecchi are quite rare, but look out for them or ask your local wine merchant to source you one.
6. Italy has 2 vineyard landscapes that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites!
The two World Heritage Sites are The Hills of Prosecco of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene (which includes Cartizze) in the Veneto and the Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato in Piedmont (the epicenter of Barolo and Barbaresco, as well as other prized wines like Barbera, Dolcetto and Arneis). Both were chosen not only for their natural beauty, but for their history, charming hamlets and man’s viticultural intervention.
A particular grape vine training style from Pantelleria, an island off the south coast of Sicily, is included on another UNESCO List: Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Learn more about these regions as well as other nearby UNESCO World Heritage Sites, check out La Dolce Vigna’s Blog Post UNESCO World Heritage Wine Regions in Italy.
Barbaresco, Langhe, Piedmont. Photo credit: La Dolce Vigna
7. The Italian Peninsula was once known as “The Land of Wine”.
The first Greek settlers who landed in Southern Italy around 800 BCE, with grape vines in tow, were surprised to see an already flourishing wine-making scene. (Though no one is certain why, it could have been, in part, thanks to the great Etruscan civilization present on the peninsula.) Not only this, but the Greeks considered the climate and terrain of Southern Italy so ideal for grape-growing that they began referring to this new land as Oenotria, ‘The Land of Wine’. How right they were and still are!
The theme of La Dolce Vigna’s Fall 2020 Wine + Culture Club Box is Magna Graecia (the Latin name for Southern Italy’s ancient Greek colonies) and the legacy they left behind both in terms of wine and culture.
Magna Graecia, Southern Italy.
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About Leslie Rosa
Sommelier + Founder of La Dolce Vigna Wine + Culture Tour Co.
After a decade of working in the art world for eminent institutions and artists in New York and London, I moved to Italy, fell in love with Italian wine and became a certified sommelier with the Associazione Italiana Sommelier. I created La Dolce Vigna in response to the large, impersonal tours I came across while living in Italy. My company offers curated experiences that impart a full sense of place through family-run and historic wineries, regional cuisine, stunning natural scenery, charming hotels, and, of course, colorful characters. When not leading tours, you can find me doing pop-up wine tastings, writing for the Slow Wine Guide and Wine Tourist Magazine, or getting lost someplace beautiful with my watercolor set.