Wine Law

206 WINE LAW 4.5. Names of geographical units smaller or larger than the area underlying the PDO or PGI We discussed in point 2.7. the issue concerning references on the label, in a wine bearing a PDO, PGI or a GI of a third country, to the name of a geographical unit that is smaller or larger than the area of that designation of origin or geographical indication 60 . Italy has deemed it necessary to limit the subzones to the PDOs, excluding the possibility of inserting them for PGIs. For grapevine products produced in a smaller geographical unit, at least 85% of the grapes from which the grapevine product has been produced shall originate in that smaller geographical unit 61 , and the remaining grapes used in the production shall originate in the geographical demarcated area of the DO or GI concerned. Following article 44 of Act No. 238, as of their registration in the European Commission’s PDO and PGI register, DOs and GIs, traditional terms, larger geographical units, subareas and smaller geographical units and other indications reserved for the respective PDOs and PGIs cannot be used except in compliance with the provisions of the relevant product specifications, of EU law and the Decree itself. The name of a geographical unit smaller or larger than the area underlying the designation of origin or geographical indication or a geographical area references shall refer to: a) a locality or group of localities; b) a local administrative area or part thereof; c) a winegrowing sub-region or part thereof; or d) an administrative area. It is worth mentioning that the optional terms, excluding trademarks and company names, can be shown on the label only in characters no larger or evident than those used for the denomination of controlled origin, without prejudice to the more restrictive general rules. This, under article 29 of the same Act, only PDOs can have expressly delimited areas, commonly called subareas (in Italian, “ sottozone ”), which must have environmental or traditionally known peculiarities, be designated with a specific geographical, historical-geographical or administrative name, be expressly provided for in the product specification and be regulated more rigidly. An Italian PDO may quite often include, within the designated area, a number of subzones, which are part of the PDO, where the French system normally has different PDOs within the so-called “ region vinicole ” (see point 2.7.). As an 60 Article 55 of Regulation (EU) No 33/2019, cit . 61 This does not include (i) any quantity of grapevine products used in sweetening, “ expedition liqueur ” or “ tirage liqueur ”, nor (ii) any quantity of grapevine product referred to in points (3)(e) and (f) of Part II of Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.