THE ITALIAN MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE HAS AUTHORIZED ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF PACKAGING FOR WINE, EVEN FOR DOC WINES. DOCG AND "RISERVA", SUPERIORE", AND "VIGNA" HAVE BEEN EXCLUDED

The Italian Minister of Agriculture, Luca Zaia, recently authorized with a decree the possibility to package Italy's denomination of origin wines in non glass material containers, in particular, with the so-called "bag-in-box" packaging. Wines, however, with the title, "Riserva", "Superiore", and "Vigna" have been excluded, as well as all DOCG wines, which are still prohibited from using alternative containers.
"We have taken into consideration market requests" - explained Minister Zaia - "especially the demand from Northern European countries where 'bag-in-box' could be a useful tool for the penetration of Italian wine. Regardless, we wanted to save the image of our best products by posing particularly restrictive conditions for the use of these types of containers".

The Minister of Agriculture's decision was reached following requests by Italian regions and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano that were expressed during a meeting last March 13, 2008. The entities and organizations specialized in this area of the winemaking sector later expressed their favorable opinion for adopting this measure during a meeting on July 23. The decree foresees a simplified process for modifying disciplines so that producers interested in this new opportunity can adopt it in a shorter period of time.