During a recent boring drive from West Palm to Orlando, one of my "wine geek" friends and I began challenging each other with wine trivia. It brought me back to the early 1980's when I was first trying to teach myself about wine. I would spend countless hours memorizing different classifications and lists. The 1855 classification of Bordeaux. The Grand Crus of Burgundy. The thirteen grapes allowed in Chateauneuf-du -Pape. The DOCGs of Italy.

As is the case with most trivia, memorizing these facts does not make you an expert, but it did give me a good foundation to build upon. And nearly 30 years later most of what I tried to learn still holds true today, except for one glaring exception.

DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) is a legal category established in Italy in 1963 for its highest quality wines. It was established at the same time as the DOC as an Italian version of the French Appellation Controlee system. When I was trying to commit to memory the list of DOCGs there were eleven. The first five, Brunello Di Montalcino, Barolo, Barbaresco, Chianti and Vino Nobile Di Montepulcino, are on everyone's list of Italy's most important wines. There was a small crack in the system when the undistinguished Albana Di Romagna was awarded DOCG status in 1986, but the Italians got right back on track with subsequent DOCGs. That is, until fairly recently.

As of June 2011 there are now 71 DOCGs and counting. It seems like every couple of months the list of "great" Italian wines grows longer and longer. Personally, I have nothing against Cesanese del Piglio or Moscato di Scanzo having DOCG status, but I miss the days when DOCG really meant something. Needless to say this is one list I won't even try to keep up with.

Paul Quaglini