Some Italy wine facts

Revising Italian wines for an upcoming exam. Here are some interesting facts:

- Pinot Grigio accounts for ONE THIRD of all wine sales in the UK off trade (supermarkets etc).

- The quality seal DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) was introduced in the early 1980s in an attempt to create a super-DOC status. The requirements to qualify for DOCG are the same as DOC, with the added hurdle of a blind tasting carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture.

- Prosecco is a grape variety not a region (the region, recently conferred DOCG status, is Conegliano-Valdobbiadene). The Italians were so worried about other countries selling wine bearing the name Prosecco that, in a bid to protect it (and in a wonderful application of EU beaurocracy), they have just renamed the Prosecco grape "Glera" and the region itself "Prosecco".