Why it’s worth understanding Italian wine and cheese labels

When you have centuries of tradition and expertise behind you, it’s important to protect what you produce from inferior copycats. That’s the rationale behind the EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO in the UK, DOP in Italy) campaign. These three letters can be found in the name of Europe’s best ingredients and food products, letting you know that whatever you’re buying has been grown, reared or made in a specific place, to a specific recipe, using specific production methods. This protects the producers from those who might want to cash in on the reputation of a food by producing a second-rate or different product and calling it the same thing.

Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) works in the same way but specifically for Italian wine. It acts as a guarantee that the wine you’re buying is from a particular area and produced using particular methods. There are an incredible 329 of them across Italy.

All sorts of Italian food and wine enjoy protected status (and an official consortium to make sure those protections are upheld), but if you’re on the hunt for a particularly good bottle of wine or a beautiful cheese with ancient origins, these are the three to look out for.

Alto Adige DOC

It may be small, but this northern pocket of the country produces some incredible wine. It’s all thanks to the microclimates found throughout the region, which boasts over 14,000 acres of vineyards from which over 40 million bottles are produced each year. This is where the jagged peaks of the Alps soften into much warmer Mediterranean valleys, a combination that allows for real diversity. Over 20 grape varieties are grown here, with 65% white and 35% red.

Alto Adige (also known as South Tyrol) takes its DOC protection seriously: 98% of all its wines bear the accreditation. White, red or sparkling – chances are if it’s from Alto Adige, it’s DOC. The tropical-tasting, mineral-heavy white wines are the most well known from this region, with the native gewürztraminer grape a particular highlight, but the ever-popular pinot grigio and chardonnay are a common sight too. For reds, lagrein and schiava (also known as vernatsch) are the most important local grapes, the former offering flavours of violets and dark berries with the latter brighter, lighter and strawberry-like.

Pecorino Romano PDO

There are countless pecorino cheeses in Italy – pecorino just means ‘of sheep’ – but there is only one Pecorino Romano PDO. Around 95% is produced on island of Sardinia and around five per cent comes from the countryside of Lazio and the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. It’s beloved for its slightly spicy and aromatic flavour. It’s aged for a minimum of five months, at which point the flavour is gentle and mellow, but can be aged for up to 30 months for something intense, seriously piquant and almost smoky.

The sheep’s milk used in Pecorino Romano PDO always comes from free-range flocks, who graze in meadows and enjoy a varied diet of plants – all of which adds to the quality of the milk. Producing the cheese is hands-on, with skilled cheesemakers keeping a watchful eye over every step of the process.

Today you can get different varieties of Pecorino Romano PDO. If you see ‘Riserva’ on the label, it means the cheese has been matured for at least 14 months (but often longer). If you see ‘Extra’, it means the cheese has a reduced salt content of no more than 3.5%. And if you see ‘di Montagna’, it’s a very special cheese indeed – made using milk from sheep that live over 600 metres above sea level and produced within 10 kilometres of their grazing grounds.

Etna DOC

Sicily’s gastronomy is world-famous – and it has the wines to match. The volcanic island is Italy’s largest region, and anyone from there certainly considers themself Sicilian first, Italian second, such is the strength of the local culture. Towards the east coast is the mighty Mount Etna, a still-active volcano that provides some incredible soil for the vineyards planted on its slopes.

Only around 3,200 acres of the volcano’s vineyards fall under the Etna DOC protection – a tiny percentage of the 242,000 acres the whole island is home to. But that’s part of what makes these wines special. The four slopes of the volcano where Etna DOC can be found each offer their own terroir – the northern slope produces incredible reds using the nerello mascalese grape; the eastern slope faces the sea and produces world-class whites from the carricante grape. The southwestern slope bakes under intense sun, with some vineyards planted at 1,000 metres (1,000 metres is the upper limit of the Etna PDO territory) above sea level, while the southeastern slope makes the most of bush vines, which can stand up to both strong sunlight and cool sea breezes.

This combination of cool winds, harsh sunlight, volcanic fertile soil and four distinct grape varieties all work together to create Etna DOC wines. Cherries, chocolate and herbs are characteristic of the reds, while the whites boast lemon, peach and apple – but all of them perfectly encapsulate the incredible soil the grapes are grown in under the shadow of the volcano.

Hungry for more Italian food knowledge? Explore the dishes, drinks and ingredients that define 20 Italian regions with our deep-dive guide.

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