<a href="https://www.viacarota.com/">Via Carota</a>&nbsp;is a trattoria located at 51 Grove Street in the West Village. Via Carota is all about honoring its Italian roots and this is clearly represented in the ambience, the food, the decor, and, of course, the wine. If you are dining at Via Carota, listen to the CorkRules&rsquo; <a href="https://uat.corkrules.com/via-carota/episodes/20">podcast on the wine list </a>to pick up a few suggestions from a certified sommelier.

In an earlier article, we identified the Italian wine regions, but in this article, we&rsquo;re going to focus on Italian wine labels to help you understand more about the bottle you are ordering.

A few key terms you should understand about Italian wine labels&nbsp;are the official designations: DOCG, DOC, and IGT. Just like the French counterpart, appellations, the designations identify the rules of wine cultivation and production that are in place for the locations that receive the designations.

So, let&rsquo;s take a look at what they mean and how that affects the wine you buy.

DOCG is the abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita ((Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin). This is the top classification and the most strict. It governs all aspects of production, including which varieties can be grown, where they can be grown, and how the wines are aged. Quite simply, the stricter the rules the higher the quality of wine. There are only 74 DOCGs in Italy, with the majority of them located in &nbsp;Piedmont, Veneto, and Tuscany. This is why these regions are considered to be the best wine-producing regions.

DOC is the abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Denomination of Controlled Region) The rules of this designation govern production and style, the less stringent rules allow more wine producers to jump achieve certification. Currently, there are 334 DOCs in Italy.

And finally, the least regulated classification is IGT, an abbreviation for Indicazione Geografica Tipica (Typical Geographical Indication) this was first introduced in 1992, &nbsp;and is basically a classification that only refers to location but allows wine producers to use grapes and production styles that are not allowed under DOC and DOCG regulations. Despite the ease of production regulations, currently, there are only 118 IGTs in Italy. Most wine producers want to focus on quality and earn recognition for producing quality wine.

In addition to the official classifications, there are a few other terms you should become familiar with:

Classico: This refers to a zone within a region that is considered the original area of production.

Azienda Agricola: This indicates the farm or estate that produces the grapes and produces wine.

Annata or Vendemmia: This refers to a specific harvest or vintage and is hugely informative if you understand the particular &lsquo;good&rsquo; or &lsquo;bad&rsquo; years in grape cultivation, most specifically, the influence of the weather.

Produttore: Is the producer - a producer could be anyone who makes the wine. So, it&rsquo;s generally best to choose a producer that is also the estate and vineyard.

Tenuta: Refers to the Estate

Vigneto: Quite simple, the vineyard

So, now that you can read the label, all that remains is to taste the wine and, the most difficult part, remember which wines you love, because in this industry, regardless of locations, producers, and grape, the most important point is to drink the wine you love.

Cheers!

&nbsp;

About the CorkRules Podcast:&nbsp;Each week we pour a glass and share top restaurant wine lists picks, providing you with the knowledge to confidently navigate the wine list through sommelier recommendations, suggested food pairings and expert insights

About CorkRules:&nbsp;CorkRules, the first digital wine app experience, makes it easier for you to navigate the restaurant wine list, and provides you with personalized wine recommendations from your favorite restaurants. Through CorkRules you can find the perfect wine for every occasion based on your preferences. Connect with friends and wine experts to discover new wines to try and learn about wine. CorkRules makes it easier to discover and drink what you love. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

Via Carota is a trattoria located at 51 Grove Street in the West Village. Via Carota is all about honoring its Italian roots and this is clearly represented in the ambience, the food, the decor, and, of course, the wine. If you are dining at Via Carota, listen to the CorkRules’ podcast on the wine list to pick up a few suggestions from a certified sommelier.

Italian Wine Labels Explained at Via Carota

Wines from grapes grown in higher altitude areas with cooler climate has become quite the trend recently. This specific growing environment gives intense flavor but elegance and freshness to the final wines. To highlight and champion these conditions more and more winemakers are starting to use alto as a marketing and labelling term to show their grapes were grown in high altitude vineyards.

Decoding the wine label: Alto

Brut is a word often seen on labels for different kinds of sparkling wine. As you may have discovered when drinking these wines, it indicates that the wine is dry, meaning there is no perceived sweetness in the wine. But how about Extra Brut or Dry, what do they mean and are they the same as Brut?

Decoding the wine label: Brut

Semi-sweet Riesling, a type of wine falling out of style. It’s a shame, since these wines are perfect to pair with flavorful cuisines like Asian or Mexican, or simply drink as they come under the summer sun. The higher level of sugar left in the wine also means that the alcoholic fermentation was stopped before finishing, providing a wine with lower alcohol level and therefor easier grabbing a second glass of.

Decoding the wine label: Spätlese

Have you ever heard the word Xinomavro? Most have not. It is however a word on many sommeliers’ lips today, as it happens to be considered the grape variety with the highest quality in Greece, and one that is trending at the moment. The fact that Greece have been making wine for a long time comes as no surprise, but they have never exported an amount to make sure wine lovers around the globe tried it. With the growing wine tourism many have discovered these wines and are serving them in wine bars and restaurants in many countries today.

Decoding the wine label: Xinomavro

Chianti Classico, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico… Why do all these Italian wine regions have the Classico addendum and what does it mean? What is the difference for wines labeled as Classico?

Classico is a wine term in Italy seen on a few wine labels and it indicates that the wine’s from the historic center of the region, the heart. Using Chianti and Chianti Classico and their Sangiovese-based red wines as an example, Chianti is a rather large wine district within the Tuscany region. Chianti Classico is located withing Chianti as the central part and the one that originally existed. Back then this smaller region was actually called Chianti, but as the region grew the quality of the wine plummeted and the well-known characteristics of these red wines were watered down. The reputation took a hit and sales diminished. Eventually this led to the creation of Chianti Classico, which would be drawn from the original Chianti borders to recover the typicity of these wines. Today the quality of both Chianti and Chianti Classico have risen a lot due to modern techniques and knowledge about pruning, planting and temperature control in the winery.

Decoding the wine label: Classico

In the rarefied world of fine wine, where bottles can command prices equivalent to luxury cars, authenticity is everything. Laurent Ponsot's gripping memoir "FBI: Fake Bottle Investigation" reads more like a high-stakes thriller than a traditional wine book, chronicling his relentless pursuit of one of the wine world's most infamous counterfeiters, Rudy Kurniawan.

From Burgundy's Vineyards to the FBI's Most Wanted: A Winemaker's Quest for Justice

Chablis – one of the more popular styles of wine today and a region known by many. Most are familiar with the word Chablis and the light, fresh white wine with a touch of minerality it brings. Even though it’s a renowned wine, few knows what it really is.

Decoding the wine label: Chablis

Many grape varieties around the world of wine have names local to the region or country they’re grown in, even though they’re exactly the same. The most famous example would be Syrah in France where the same grape is named Shiraz in Australia. Another variety with two names is Pinot Grigio, or Pinot Gris.

Decoding the wine label: Pinot Grigio

Have you ever seen the term sur lie on a wine label? It’s not a grape and not a wine region, but a winemaking method used to give certain styles of white wine a rounder texture and a more complex flavor profile.

Decoding the wine label: Sur lie

Aretsky’s Patroon

Grace Hood, certified sommelier and wine educator, and Robert Tas visit the American-fusion restaurant Patroon, New York City

Wine List Review of Patroon, New York City

Grace Hood

Patroon

Patroon

Robert Tas&nbsp;

Hello, and welcome to CorkRules podcast where we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I&#39;m your host, Robert Tas, along with Grace hood, wine educator, and certified sommelier. Hello, Grace. It&#39;s great to have you back for another great wine list.

Grace Hood&nbsp;

Hey, Robert, happy to be here.

Robert Tas&nbsp;&nbsp;

So before we jump in, let&#39;s talk CorkRules. We created CorkRules to demystify wine lists, because we know from experience that sometimes when we get that list handed to us, well, it can be intimidating and even a little daunting. Our aim is to help prepare you to navigate that list. Find those hidden gems, value wines, or that special bottle to take your dining experience over the top. So sit back and listen as we review your favorite wine list. So great. Today, we&#39;re chatting about Patroon This is a classic New York establishment. Super excited to hear what your initial thoughts are about their list. Yeah, so

Grace Hood Tthey have a nice list. It&#39;s a good international mix. Definitely, a lot of French which you know, I never hate.

Robert Tas:&nbsp;Yeah, you and your French wine obsession. I love it. So, Grace, where are you going to kick us off?

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

Well, you know, you can&#39;t go wrong with sparkling. And a really interesting one I saw on the list is a California sparkling from Cruz, which is a small producer from Petaluma. This is what we would qualify as a natural wine, in that the fermentation process occurs from the wild yeast, which just refers to the natural spores that are already on the grapes and the leaves in the vineyard as opposed to using a man-made yeast or a chemically produced yeast. This is the most old-school way of mind making the winemaker would take a few great clippings about a week before they&#39;re going to harvest the acreage. And in the lab, they&#39;ll mash up the grapes and leave them in an air-locked container to start growing healthy bacteria from the natural yeasts. And that will be added to the fermentation tank when they harvest and start processing the rest of the grapes is basically the same thing you would do if you were making a sourdough bread or a kombucha.

&nbsp;

Robert Tas&nbsp; 01:59

Wow, that&#39;s awesome. Wine science lessons with Grace here. I love it. Now, I gotta believe they have some great whites. What caught your eye there?

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

Yeah, so since the cuisine Patroon is kind of American fine dining fusion. We have a lot we can play with when it comes to flavors. If we wanted to go with a lighter style white, I would actually recommend an Australian riesling from the Vinta Looper vineyard in the Clare Valley. Australia is such an underrated country for wines. Sometimes the southern hemisphere gets forgotten because it&#39;s so far away from us here in America. But don&#39;t sleep on the southern hemisphere. Australia has a lovely temperate climate and makes it has very talented winemakers

Robert Tas&nbsp;&nbsp;

I can&#39;t believe you think Australia wines are underrated, but you&#39;re probably right. We all need to do some more Australian wine exploration including myself.

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

Yeah, well, you know, I&#39;m here to help anytime, Robert,

Robert Tas&nbsp;&nbsp;

I do I know you&#39;re going to take good care of me.

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

And speaking of taking good care if we&#39;re looking for a richer, deeper white, I&#39;m going to recommend the Coupe Busan from the central coast of California. I absolutely love this vineyard and have been drinking their juice for almost my entire wine career. Ruth odd is a traditional white Rhone varietals and really enjoys the heat and arid climates. That&#39;s why it&#39;s grows so well in the rocky soils and sunshine near Santa Barbara.

Robert Tas&nbsp;&nbsp;

That sounds nice. So, what are you thinking of for our red friends?

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

Yeah, if we&#39;re thinking of a lighter style red, I would go with the gamay noir who are from Barsotti vineyard in the Sierra foothills of California. This one really caught my eye because you don&#39;t often see gamma noir in the American wine market. So, if a place like Patroon is putting it on their menu, then you know it must be something special. And then if you want it to go with a little bit of a heavier read, we&#39;re going to head north to Washington and I would grab the 2013 Hedges family red blend, I actually worked the 2021 wine harvest in Washington, and I have a really, really soft spot for their luscious delicious reds.

Robert Tas&nbsp; 04:05

Yum. I bet those are drinking fabulously right now. So, what about some unique wines that might be off the beaten path and maybe something special.

Grace Hood&nbsp;&nbsp;

Yeah, so if we&#39;re thinking about some more wallet-friendly wines for a white, I&#39;m going to go with the Italian white from La minana. It&#39;s from Alto Aldige and then for a more high value and kind of a special white I would choose the 2016 Domaine Leflaive Premier Cru Puligny Montrachet and then on the red side, if you&#39;re feeling budget-friendly, I would go with the 2017 Lemelson Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley or if you&#39;re looking to go big or go home on a special occasion red the 2000 Chateau Petrus is arguably one of the most sought after vintages for that producer. So go for it.

Robert Tas&nbsp;

Oh my goodness, you certainly didn&#39;t hold anything back with that. That&#39;s fantastic. Amazing. Exactly, man. Miz right. All right, Grace, thank you so much for helping us navigate Patroon&#39;s fabulous wine list To our audience, thank you all for joining us here on CorkRules. If you would like Grace to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us an email to info at CorkRules.com or visit our website where we have a request form available. We&#39;re looking forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime, please check out our website for all our latest episodes of your favorite restaurant wine lists.

And please follow us on social media at CorkRules and at wines with grace. And finally drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly. And we look forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon.

Cheers.

BRAT

Bocca di Lupe

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Alba Restaurant

Alba

10 Greek Street

L'Auberge Chez Francois

Andrew Edmunds

Salt Seafood and Oyster Bar

Matteos Ristorante Italiano

Matteo's

Sycamore Lane is a popular wine brand that offers a range of varietals, including Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and others. The wines are known for their consistent quality and affordability.

Craft beer, classic cocktails & American fare served in a swanky, industrial-chic tavern.

The American Express Centurion Global Lounge Network

homepage

CorkRules application allows you to discover wines at your favorite restaurants, learn with friends and be confident with price transparency. Order wine with confidence at restaurants and retailers. Get personalized recommendations. #DrinkWhatYouLove

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