The story begins with the French cru Mr. de Pontac who in 1525 founded his company in the seventeenth century will be a marketing operation with the first wine ever sold under the name of the property where it was produced: and it is the ‘Haut Brion (now 1er Cru AOC Pessac-Leognan). Born in 1570 Chateau Margaux (Margaux 1er Cru AOC) in 1595 Chateau Latour (Pauillac 1er cru AOC).
German law has begun to take its first steps only in 1971, could therefore count on all the achievements and experiences from other nations until then. The result was a law that seems made to be confusing, if not to deceive the consumer. German wine labels are the most comprehensive in the world but are the cause of most problems for producers.
Portugal has an ideal climate for viticulture. Outside Alto Douro, the remaining regions have a rainfall in late summers, radiant sun but not hot. The best Portuguese wines is the Port and was regulated long before anyone else did it. Then they were regulated and some other areas are not always to the benefit of quality. Enough commercial success of vinho verde of the Minho region (one quarter of national production) and sweet Mateus rosé produced by Sogrape, which also produces the Planalto, a dry white. Until the 70s only the region of Dao was regulated, but anonymous wines, and Muscat of Setubal, which instead leads the world. With the entry into the EC in 1986, Lisbon was quick to set its IPR (Indicaçãoes de Regulamentada provenience) and, within these, her DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada). Today the trend is towards individuality and There are dozens of examples. The first, and is still the best, appeared in the ’50s by the Ferreira (Porto company) with a sumptuous and rare Barca Velha, JMda Fonseca is the largest producer of Setubal and admirable as the red and Periquita Camarate .
The country with the largest area of land from the vineyard of the world and a country that has always (Roman vineyard) has produced and exported wine entered the market shortly before the modern California wine and it is only the third largest producer.
Austria is the eighth in the world ranking of wine consumers and producers in the sixteenth. Traders Austrians were experts in mixing low-cost Austrian wines from Eastern Europe and Italy, then things improved with the law, enacted in 1972, modeled on the German. But what he’s done raising all its standards and its vitality was the scandal of 1985 when it was discovered that manufacturers and dealers by adding their wine with diethylene alcohol.
The Swiss are experts and consumers of wine, they understood that rarely crosses the borders of the canton, and almost never those of the state. In most breeding a variety of screws with scrupulous efficiency from a vineyard frazionatissimo of 14,000 ha, aided by irrigation and fertilization and, if necessary, from sugar. The production of red wine, one time insignificant, it is now approximately one quarter of the total Swiss wine.
The Czech and Slovak Republics have always had a tradition of good wine and how much it would good if they remember when the tourists started arriving from 1989, in the cafes of Prague and found the white wines labeled Moravenka. In terms of wine the most important is Slovakia wine with vineyards clustered around Bratislava and to the east along the Hungarian border, where it included within its boundaries the two villages of the Tokaj region and the wines produced in Nové Mesto deserve to be tasted. Raca, just north of Bratislava , is famous for the full-bodied red Frankovka, St.Laurent and Pinot Noir.
The new nation of Slovenia (1991) extends from the south, along the Croatia to the north of the Alps along the Italian border (Carnian and Julian) and then east with the Stars and Hungary. The east and west ends have traditionally been areas of Slovenian wines production. The West prefers the Italian style of dry white (neck that goes from Friuli to Slovenia) and bodied, with remarkable product Teran Refosco on the hills. Towards east wines are oriented style Magyar intense from grapes harvested at advanced maturity.
Extensive vineyards were planted in the ’50s in this land rich food in order to export to the USSR and Europe. In 1978 he kicked off a geographic naming system disk, on paper, as in France. The lowest level is called the Quality for export, then the DGO or regional wines (blend of two grapes) and Controliran (our DOCG) allocated to individual varieties in 24 selected regions. Reserve wines mature in oak casks 3-4 years old Special Reserve and limited production (though not Controliran) but represents the very best.
Romania has a continental climate with hot summers, moderated by the Carpathian Mountains which rise to 2400m and for half of the territory and the Black Sea that flows a short distance. In Romania, a conversion program of the ’60s brought the country the sixth largest in Europe, on the eighth and 247.000ha vineyard as a producer. Most of the Romania Wines are produced with local grapes as the wine that was once famous around the world: Cotnari the last century it was served in restaurants in Paris as the Pearl of Moldavia then fell into disuse even if today we start rifarne.
The Moldova (formerly Moldavia) is independent since 1991 but has always gravitated Romanian and Soviet orbit and its vineyards are also the result of the Russian plans, and even before, the interest of the Romanovs who made 600ha planted to Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, and Rkatsiteli Aligoté vignerons from France and founded here, the first wine school in the area of Russia Stauceni. As a supplier in Russia in the nineteenth century, in Moldova have built huge and sophisticated wineries not only for table wines but also for sherry (a Ialeveni), sparkling wine (a Cricova) and brandy (Balti).
In the 50s Russia officially opted for wine at the expense of vodka, at that time was just over 400.000ha of vineyards in 1985 had grown to 1,400,000 which was second after Spain for vines and third after Italy and France, for wine production. Clearly, the primary objective was to manage the quality if these amounts had been drawn up a network of wineries first and second processing. The primary processing factories were in charge of crushing and fermentation, the wine was then sent by tanker to secondary processing plants, located in the areas where more consumption ended the wine and bottled at high temperature
Since its entry into the EC, Greece has begun a process of naming wines that made it possible to focus on previously neglected local specialties. Some are memorable, but all worth a try though, then, in the tourist restaurants will continue to find the Demestika in Patras of Achaia-Clauss, Lac des Roches and Boutari of Thessaloniki, the Kouros of Kourtakis in Attica …