Veneto is home to a large and growing number of DOCG titles, confirming the Region's position at the very top of Italy's wine hierarchy, together with Piedmont and Tuscany.
Here is the list of all the DOCG (controlled and guaranteed designation of origin) wines of Veneto Region with a brief description:
Obtained from grapes dried in fruttaio (grape-drying building) for 100/120 days where the sugar fermentation is completed, Amarone is one of the most enduring wines among the great Italian wines. It has a very intense red colour with garnet shades and a perfume that reminds of dried fruits, tobacco and spices due to the noble rot which develops during the drying process. The flavour is very fruity and fragrant, dry but highly soft, with a full body, warm, invigorating and robust; it has a strong personality and can be stored for more than twenty years.
The Friularo grape with its dark bunches, compact and triangular shaped, adorns the Bagnoli vineyards. During autumn whilst the brown leaves colour the rows, the grapes mature slowly concentrating the sweetness and the perfumes in the skins. The best time to harvest the grapes is November, when the first hoar frost is found on the branches. From this characteristic, the adaptation to the cold, (Latin:Frigus), comes the name for the historic grape “Friularo”, in Venetian “Frigoearo”. The D.O.C.G. Friularo from Bagnoli is an indigenous grape variety which represents excellence in winemaking for the area. The particular acidity of Friularo grapes confers great versatility in the winemaking producing different styles of wine: full bodied and structured red wines, soft dessert wines and fresh and elegant spumante.
Bardolino Superiore is the higher-quality DOCG variant of Veneto's classic light red Bardolino wine, made on the eastern shores of Lake Garda. Like its more famous neighbor Valpolicella, Bardolino is made from a blend of Corvina and Rondinella grapes, complemented by up to 20% Molinara. While Corvina gives structure and weight to Bardolino, and contributes a certain sour-cherry aroma, Rondinella is responsible for the wine's characteristic and appealingly fresh, herby flavor. Bardolino Superiore wines made from vineyards within the Bardolino Classico area are among the finest made in Veneto.
Asolo Prosecco (also known as Colli Asolani) is one of a growing raft of DOCG titles to grace the wine portfolio of the Veneto wine region in north-eastern Italy. As is made clear by the first of these titles (but not the second), it covers prosecco wines – the gently fragrant sparkling style for which Veneto has become known in recent decades. The Colli Asolani (the hilly area of northern central Veneto in which Asolo Prosecco is made) run in a neatly defined ridge from north-east to south-west between the towns of Cornuda and Asolo itself. Along this five-mile (8km) spine the hills undulate gently, their peaks rising to a maximum of about 1500ft (460m). The finest vineyard sites lie on the southern side of the hills, on sunny south-facing slopes whose gentle gradient and loose soils offer excellent drainage. They are interspersed with orchards, vegetable crops and the wooded areas which reach up in finger-like valleys to the ridge summit.
The Colli di Conegliano are the hills which spread westwards (and briefly eastwards) from the town of Conegliano in Veneto, north-eastern Italy. In wine circles Conegliano is usually associated with its sparkling Prosecco wines, or the local oenology college (which ranks among Italy's finest). The Colli di Coneglaino DOCG title, however, is reserved uniquely for still wines, both red and white, the most respected of which are sweet wines made in passito style.
Fior d'Arancio is a member of the Muscat family of grapes, and also goes by the name Orange Muscat and Muscat Fleur d'Oranger. Its name, more elegant in its French and Italian forms, means 'orange blossom'. This is appropriate: Fior d'Arancio wines have a fresh, delicate, slightly sweet, blossom-like aroma, very similar to that which blows around citrus groves on warm, breezy spring afternoons.
'Prosecco', like 'Champagne', is now a protected name. Although once just the name of a grape variety, used casually to describe the wines it made, the ever-increasing popularity of sparkling prosecco wines has cemented the name as that of the wine style, rather than the grape. This evolution was formalized by the official name change of the Prosecco grape variety to its ancient form 'Glera'.
Lison is a white-wine of north-eastern Italy, covering an area of eastern Veneto and western Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Lison wines are made from Tocai, one of Veneto and Friuli's signature white grapes. The variety is now officially known as Tai, to avoid confusion with the sweet wines of Hungary's Tokaj region.
The typical Montello Rosso wine is a blend of between 40% and 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, complemented by varying proportions of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and even Carmenere. Except for the inclusion of Carmenere (which has rarely been seen in Bordeaux vineyards since the phylloxera crisis of the 1860s), this is a classic Bordeaux blend.
Piave Malanotte wines are the very finest reds that can be made in the Piave area, and indeed in the eastern half of Veneto, which otherwise specializes in still and sparkling whites. They are made almost exclusively (95% of any blend) from the area's flagship red grape Raboso, although this may be further sub-divided between the finer Raboso Piave and its less highly regarded sub-variety Raboso Veronese. The latter is limited to a 30% representation in the final wine.
Recioto della Valpolicella is an intensely flavored, sweet red wine made from dried (passito) grapes. It is made in the Veneto region of north-eastern Italy and is one of the region's most idiosyncratic wines, particularly when made in a foaming spumante form. The recioto wine style came about as Valpolicella winemakers sought a way of increasing the body and complexity of their wines; the Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara varieties struggle to give deep, satisfying wines in the cool climate of western Veneto.
Recioto di Gambellara is a sweet white wine made from dried grapes grown in the Gambellara viticultural zone of Veneto, north-eastern Italy. The DOCG title was granted in 2008. While the vast majority of sweet wines produced in the world are white, in Veneto the reverse is true; Recioto di Gambellara (and its equivalent sweet white from neighboring Soave) is much less common than sweet red Recioto della Valpolicella.
Recioto di Soave is a sweet white wine made from dried grapes grown in the Soave viticultural zone of Veneto, north-eastern Italy. The DOCG title, which includes the classico version, was granted in 1998. While the vast majority of sweet wines produced in the world are white, in Veneto the reverse is true; Recioto di Soave (and its equivalent from neighboring Gambellara) is much less common than sweet red Recioto della Valpolicella.
Soave Superiore is the DOCG title given to Soave wines from the appellation's highest-quality tier. Soave is arguably the most famous white-wine title in Italy. Its wines are made from Garganega grapes grown around the town of Soave, just east of Verona in north-eastern Italy. A dry, crisp, fruity white wine, Soave's naturally refreshing appeal led it to phenomenal popularity in the second half of the 20th century.