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Like most wine producing countries, Italy has its own set of terms to describe a wine in terms of its appellation.

An appellation is defined as "A protected name under which a wine may be sold, indicating that the grapes used are of a specific kind from a specific district"

In simple terms, the appellation gives you an indication of a wine's "quality".

However, quality can be quite subjective. Just because a wine is not of a particular "level" does not mean that it's not a nice wine.

So how are wines classed in Italy?

• Vino da Tavola - "table wine". It's made in Italy and is usually quite "basic"
• Indicazione Geografica Tipica - a wine from a specific region, but which hasn't met certain requirements for a more specific classification.
• Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) -
• Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) -

As a very basic rule of thumb a DOC or DOCG is going to be of higher quality than the others and will probably cost more.