Vino da Tavola is an Italian wine designation that translates to “table wine” and can be used for red and white wines of any grape variety or blend, that come from regions all over Italy. Today you’re more likely to see Vino d’Italia on a label or Rosso d’Italia / Bianco d’Italia instead of da Tavola, but either way, you’re in the bottom tier of the Italian wine classification system, reserved for uncomplicated and simple wines that have fewer regulations imposed on their production. In fact, Vino da Tavola doesn’t have to list a vintage or the grape varieties in its blend!
Does that mean Vino da Tavola is a bad wine? Not necessarily, it’s just everyday drinking wine that you can think of as quite straightforward. It won’t show up on many restaurant wine lists but you can often find it in less expensive grocery stores displayed in the Italian wine section or mixed in with the 1.5 or 3 liter bulk wines from the US.
Vino da Tavola vs DOC, DOCG and IGT wines
What makes a Rosso d’Italia made from Sangiovese grapes different from a bottle labeled Chianti Classico? Chianti Classico is a DOCG designation meaning Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. It must be made with a certain percentage of Sangiovese grapes, grown in a specific geographic region in Tuscany, and produced following regulations as specified by the local Italian wine governing authority. These include when the grapes can be harvested, what goes into the blend, how long the wine is aged in barrels and/or bottles before release, alcohol percentages, and more. Vino da Tavola doesn’t have the same regulations put on it. The Sangiovese grapes in a bottle of red table wine could come from anywhere in Italy and be a blend from different regions.
History of table wine
Table wine was historically a drink for the masses. It was an unstructured and young wine that didn’t cost a lot to make, and was accessible to everyone (meaning you didn’t need a lot of money to buy it). Table wine is a thing everywhere where they make wine (in France they call it Vin de Table), even in prestigious wine growing regions. That’s because you need different quality and pricing levels to meet world market demands and it’s a way of using up the grapes that would otherwise be discarded for failing to meet quality specifications in higher level wines.
A wine to have with food
Have you ever been to a restaurant in Europe where there’s no wine list and you just have to ask for “some red wine?” You’ll often find table wines in casual, local establishments where it’s the food, and not the wine, that’s on show. When the wine comes the waiter sets down a carafe and some small, thick glasses. If this is the set-up, you can be pretty confident you’re drinking table wine. There’s no judgement or exclusivity attached to the wine you’re about to have, it’s simply a generic and drinkable red or white that goes with your meal (we’d also wager a guess that the food you’re going to be served is a delicious and home-cooked regional speciality).
More about Vino d’Italia
Regions where they produce this wine
They make Vino d’Italia all over Italy, from Abruzzo and Puglia to Tuscany, Veneto and Piedmont. Nonetheless, you won’t necessarily know as much about a table wine as you would bottles that fall under the classification system for a particular wine growing region (for example, a Pinot Grigio from the Veneto, a Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli or a Nebbiolo from Piedmont).
How they make Vino da Tavola
A Bianco or Rosso d’Italia is typically a bit of a mystery in terms of who produced it and how it was made. It could be the winemaker used grapes sold in bulk on the commercial market. It might also be a wine made from fruit that didn’t make the cut for more notable appellations. The Vino da Tavola / Vino d’Italia classification system allows a winemaker to put fruit from different regions into the same wine, as well as to use different varietals.
What you’ll see on the bottle
If you have a bottle of red, you’ll see “Rosso d’Italia” on the label. White wines will be labeled “Bianco d’Italia,” and rosés are “Rosato.” You may also come across some Vino da Tavola labeled Merlot or Cabernet, more on that below.
What to keep in mind
Remember, you don’t want to put this red in your cellar, you want to drink it straight away.
Grape varieties allowed on a Vino da Tavola label
If you see a vintage or a grape name on the bottle it tells you that 85% of the wine is from that particular vintage year or made up of that grape. There are only seven grape varieties that can be used on a Vino da Tavola label (absent from the list are any native Italian varietals):
- Cabernet Franc
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Chardonnay
- Merlot
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Syrah
- Cabernet (blend of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon)
Wine Challenge: How would you describe the taste of a red table wine? The wine might be medium dry, medium in body, low in tannins, not too high in alcohol and full of simple fruit flavors with a short finish. A white is usually medium-dry and probably low in acidity, with indistinct fruit.
Were Super Tuscans once considered table wines?
It may surprise you to know that Super Tuscans, which are some of the most expensive and prestigious wines to come out of Italy, once fell under the table wine or Vino da Tavola classification. The reason for this was two-fold. They either included some foreign varietals that Tuscany didn’t authorize for use in their regional wines (Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah), or they didn’t respect the DOC blending rules of the time (which have since been changed). Nonetheless, you’d be hard pressed to find a $200 Super Tuscan labeled as a table wine today. The Italian authorities created a separate classification for these wines in 1992 called IGT or Indicazione Geografica Tipica.
