50 Years of Doc

The law that introduced Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Protected Designation of Origin) in Italy was n° 11 of 1963 and it was applied with decree N° 930, always in 1963. What this means is that DOC will turn 50 years old this year. This is not much if you consider that in France the first denominations date back to the 19th century and the great classification of Bordeaux Grand Cru was made in 1855. It is true, however, that Cosimo III, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1716 listed the main wines produced in Italy, while the law governing the wine sector in France was only passed in 1933, when Baron Pierre Le Roy, who produced Chateuneuf du Pape, ensured that Senator Joseph Capus had a bill passed by parliament that established the regulations for producing that wine, making it the first AOC (Appellation d'Origine Controllée) in modern France.

In Italy, the father of DOC was a Christian Democrat senator from Piedmont, Paolo Desan, a gentleman of a bygone era who even spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp. He drafted the original law, one of the best ever for the wine sector, that was later amended in 1992 and 2010. The first wine to receive DOC recognition was a Vernaccia di San Gimignano in 1966, while the first DOCG (guaranteed) wine was a Vino Nobile di Montalcino in 1980, at least it was the first to come out with the acronym on its label. For better or worse, DOC has been fundamental for Italian wine.

Today more than half of Italy's wine's production is DOC or IGT (geographic indication). There are those who maintain, and not always wrongfully so, that DOC is more of a birth certificate than one that attests quality. Nevertheless, without DOC or IGT it would have been much more difficult to improve quality and offer guarantees to the consumer. In 1963, almost all the wine made in Italy was bulk and sold without any labeling, mostly in the areas where it was made. Prehistoric times, in other words. The progress made over the past 50 years has been immense and the DOC system has been key in this monumental change. And so all wine producers in Italy owe something to Senator Desana, who died in 1991 almost forgotten, one of those politicians we could use now with their competence, common sense and honesty.