DOC (denominazione di origine controllata) laws were established in 1967 to cover 250 zones producing 650 distinct types of wine. (The raising of the mediocre wine Albana di Romagna to DOCG status in 1986 raised hackles considerably.) What is questionable is—as with most luxury products today—how unusual is a wine that gets DOCG status? Customers browse bottles of Italian wines inside the new Eataly food store, operated by Eataly Net ... [+] S.r.l., at the Kievsky shopping mall in Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 21, 2017. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg © 2017 Bloomberg Finance LPThere are now oceans of Barolo, many indistinguishable from Barbera, a lesser Piedmont wine that now also enjoys DOCG status.

Source: Forbes March 15, 2021 15:11 UTC