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Wine regions of the world

In the European Union, in accordance with Regulation (EC) 753/2002, the wines can be classified into two groups:

  • Quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR)
  • Table Wine (TW)

Then each country of the European Union, has different subgroups within each group. The following table shows the different subgroups sorted in order of quality:

European Union Spain France Italy Portugal
Quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR) Vinos de Pago (VP)
Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa)
Denominación de Origen (DO)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Grand Cru (AOC)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Premier Cru (AOC)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Vignoble (AOC)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Village (AOC)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Quartier-District (AOC)
Appellation d'origine contrôlée - Région (AOC)
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG)
Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC)
Denominação de Origem Controlada (DOC)
Vino de Calidad con indicación geográfica (VC) Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (VDQS) Indicação de Proveniência Regulamentada (IPR)
Table Wine (TW) Vino de la Tierra (VT) Vin de pays (VdP) Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) Vinhos Regionais (VR)
Vinos de Mesa (VDM) Vin de Table (VdT) Vino da Tavola (VdT) Vinhos de Mesa (VDM)

France is the country that has more classifications, as the importance given to "terrour" (ground from which the grapes) is so large that there does exclusive designations of origin for small areas occupy only a farm. This is intended to reward the characteristics of these small areas giving a value greater than other surrounding areas where the conditions are not optimal terrour.

Establish a quality correspondence between the classifications of different countries is impossible, since each country has its own characteristics and different classification systems. Therefore we can not ensure that AOC Grand Cru classification is better than the DOC Rioja. Being only possible to ensure that both are part of "Quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR)".

FRANCE

So much for the experts as to the general public, France and wine are synonymous. France is the second country in the world in wine production, behind Italy, but, certainly, as the first country. French wines are one of the oldest cultures of the vine, its origin is its source at the time of the Roman Empire.
In 2004 it was still essentially an economy based on family farms. For a long time, the wine of France covering nearly 450 names and only a few tens of thousands of small towns, despite its fabulous potential, little effort was made to sell the wine, except for the elitist clubs "great vintages" (Grands crus) or "Champagne".
One reason for the importance of France in wine lies in the extraordinary range of wines produced. The diversity of climates and soils allows from white light to produce powerful red wines. Each region of France has its typical wines closely with the local cuisine.

SPAIN

Ideally situated southwest of Europe, and with perfect climatic and geographical factors for production of wine, Spain has nearly 1.3 million hectares of vineyards, 15% of the world total, making it the country with the largest acreage of vineyards in the world and third in terms of production, behind France and Italy.
It has more than 650 varieties of native grapes planted in different parts of the country, which has an ideal climate for growing grapes. There are 20 strains mostly sold, among which are: Tempranillo, Monastrell, Albariño, Airen, Palomino Parellada, Carignan, Xarel-lo, Garnacha, Macabeo.
Spain has taken advantage of the natural conditions become tradition for the magic of their harvests and get a great result when open a bottle of wine. Enjoy a good Spanish wine is one of the supreme pleasures of those lovers of the fruit of the vine.