Under the strong inspiration from the French AOC system, the Italian government introduced a classification for the country's wines in 1963, under the name "Denominazione di Origine Controllata" (Designation of Controlled Origin), in short form called DOC.
When DOC is mentionedon the label, the wine comes from a narrowly defined area and with very specific requirements for grape varieties, their composition of these, harvest yield per hectare, minimum requirements for alcohol content as well as some technical requirements for the acid content, dry matter, etc.
After vinification, the wines are assessed and approved by a local tasting committee. However, it is not the task of the committee to judge the quality of the wine, but rather to ensure that the wine contains the notes that characterize the wines of the zone.
Proposals for changes in grape composition or something similar are submitted to a consortium of producers (consorzio) for each zone in the region. The Consorzio brings together ideas and suggestions and sends them to the National DOC Committee in Rome.
The first DOC wines on the market were the Roman white wine Frascati, wines from the island of Ischia in Campania and the white Vernaccia di San Gimignano from Tuscany.
Every year new wines are added to the list.
That Italy in 2011 was the worlds largest wine producer?