The Comitato Nazionale Vini, Italy's national wine commision dealing with all proposals regarding designations, has approved the new DOC Sicilia. As reported here, the Assovini group of the island's most influential wine producers was instrumental in promoting the upgrade of IGT Sicilia, a table wine designation with a geographic indication, to the higher level of DOC, equivalent to France's Appellation Contrôlée.
Assovini members foresaw as part of the upgrade that maximum permitted yields would be reduced and the bottling of Sicilian wine anywhere other than on the island would be outlawed – and the plan was so ambitious that...