O.P.A.P. is, very simply, the acronym for “Onomasia Proelefsis Anoteras Poiotitas” that you could translate in English by “Appellation of Origin of Higher Quality”.
Greek wine law is kind of based on the French legislation regarding wines. Legally, it means that the designation O.P.A.P. that you could find on the Label of Greek wines would be an equivalent to the French quality wine category known as VQPRD (in French: ”Vin de Qualité Produit dans une Région Déterminée”).
Greece counts 20 O.P.A.P. Appellations only, because of stricter conditions applied to this designation, meaning that wine with this distinctive designation will most likely be of a higher hand, and will show off more of a “Terroir” taste.
Georgia is historically recognized has being the first country producing wines in the world. This Country is producing wines from incredible indigenous grapes not well known world wide, hopefully a lot more of these wines will come soon our way into the USA for us to try and be charmed!
Historically, the production of chianti was limited to the surrounding of San Gimignano city, but was after decades of production extended to a wider area of production.
In order to differenciate each sub-areas from the original area, they have been called differently, each after the exact name of the location where the new production take place, they are: Chianti Colli Aretini, Chianti Colli Fiorentini, Chianti colli Senesi, Chianti Coline Pisane, Chianti Montalbano, Chianti Montespertoli and Chianti Rufina.
All these sub-areas are located not so far away from the original one, so the borderline is sometimes hard to undestand.
Something interesting to mention, to ease the regnonition of Chianti Classico from the others type of Chianti, they have had on the neck of Chianti Classico’s bottle a Black Rooster.
Basically a solera is a collection of barrels of the same wine of differing ages, the older ones (called Solera) being nourished by the new wines each year. The wines are aged together in oak for other years to marry the flavors and add complexity, then fortified.
So the first level of barrel, the ones holding the older wine is called Solera, the level on the top of the Solera is called 1rst Criadera (Criadera= harvest), the level on the top of the 1rst Criadera is the second Criadera and so on…This system of production is proper to Spain and is called the Solera System.