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What is the principle of origin?
The EU wine market reform, which came into force in 2012, declares the principle of origin as the authoritative quality system for the wines of the EU member states. The principle of this principle is: the closer the origin, the higher the wine quality.
This means that the smaller the geographical unit from which its grapes come, the better the wine. The country of origin is considered the largest geographical unit and a single vineyard the smallest. The quality levels according to the principle of origin are thus in ascending order:
- Country
- Region/vineyard
- Place
- Location
- Parcel
This principle is also followed in Germany by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) with its four-level classification system of Gutswein, Ortswein, Erste Lage and Großer Lage.
According to the EU wine market reform, there are essentially two levels of protected designation of origin for wines. In Germany they are called "geschützte geographische Angabe (g.g.A.)" and "geschützte designation of origin (g.U.)". The PGI refers to the former category "Landwein", the PDO refers to quality wines according to the wine law (including Prädikat wines). The previous designations of origin may be retained in Germany.
The PDO is basically and in any case the narrower designation of origin, which stands for a higher wine quality. In the southern European wine countries, the levels are easier to assign, because here, even before the wine market reform, the principle of origin was already used as a yardstick for wine quality:
Designation of Origin |
France |
Italy |
Spain |
Portugal |
pGI |
Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP) |
Indicazione Geografica Protetta (IGP) |
Indicación Geográfica Protegida (IGP) |
Indicação Geográfica Protegida (IGP) |
pDO |
Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) |
Denominazione di Origine Protetta (PDO) |
Denominación |
Denominação |
In Austria, the new designations of the EU wine market reform are not used (which is legally permissible). Instead, there are still - as in Germany, but here exclusively - the designations "Landwein", "Qualitätswein" and "Prädikatswein" and, in addition, for quality wines the additional, even stricter category "Districtus Austriae Controllatus (DAC)", which again corresponds to the principle of origin.