Italy is home of the largest amounts of grape varieties, many of which are rarely seen outside of the country.

The wine laws

• PDO Wines = Denominazione di Origine Protetta (DOP) - following traditional terms are more wildly seen.

• Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) - wines are to geographical boundries as well as Limitations on grape varieties and production methods.

• -Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantia (DOCG) - wines must meet up with all DOC requirements and additional must meet up with strickter regulations and in most cases be bottled within the area of production.

• -PGI Wines = IGP = IGT (traditional used) Indicazione Geographica P (Protecta) / T ( Tipica).

  You can roughly divide Italy in 4 large area's

• Northern (Alto Adige, Trentino, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Piemonte) 

• Central (Toscany, Umbria, Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo)

• Southern (Campania, Basilicata, Puglia)

• The Islands (Sardinia and Sicily)