2026-08-19
Italy’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry has opened a formal 30-day period for objections to a proposed ordinary amendment to the production rules for the protected designation of origin wines “Colli Berici,” according to a notice published in the Official Gazette.
The move starts the public phase of a regulatory process that could eventually change the operating rules for one of Veneto’s wine appellations. Interested parties who want to oppose the proposal must send their objections to the ministry’s PQA I office by certified email within 30 days of the notice’s publication in the Official Gazette. The filing must also comply with Italy’s stamp duty rules, the notice said.
The ministry published the proposal under the national and European procedures that govern protected designations of origin and geographical indications for wine and other agricultural products. In the notice, the ministry cited the Italian decree of Dec. 6, 2021, which sets out national procedures for applications involving DOP and IGP protections, amendments to production specifications and cancellations. It also referred to the newer European framework on geographical indications, including Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 and later delegated and implementing rules, as well as an Italian ministerial decree dated Dec. 22, 2025.
At the same time, the notice makes clear that the older 2021 Italian procedure still applies in this case because the underlying application was submitted to the ministry before March 31, 2026. That date matters because the 2025 Italian decree says earlier rules remain in force for registration, amendment and cancellation requests filed by that deadline.
The proposal itself was presented by the Consorzio tutela vini Colli Berici e Vicenza through the Veneto region. The ministry said it first received the application on June 30, 2022, and later received supplemental material from the consortium on March 13, 2025. Before publication, the proposal went through the review process required for ordinary amendments to a production specification.
According to the notice, the Veneto regional government gave a favorable opinion on the proposal, first in connection with the original filing and later again on April 28, 2025. The National Committee for DOP and IGP Wines also issued a favorable opinion during its meeting on July 28, 2026. After those steps, the ministry moved to publish the proposal, as required by European and Italian rules, so that stakeholders could review it and, if they choose, challenge it.
The official notice does not summarize the substance of the proposed amendments in the body of the text released in the Gazette. Instead, it states that the ministry is publishing the attached proposal for the ordinary amendment to the “Colli Berici” production specification. In the Italian wine system, those specifications set the legal parameters for an appellation, including matters such as grape varieties, production methods, yield limits, geographic boundaries, labeling and other technical conditions tied to the use of the name. Any approved revision can therefore have direct effects on how wineries operate under the appellation and on how compliance is checked by oversight bodies.
That is why the notice is important for the drinks sector beyond a narrow administrative audience. Even when a change is described as an ordinary amendment, a revision to an appellation’s rulebook can affect vineyard and cellar practices, documentation requirements and official controls for producers using the designation. For bottlers, growers, cooperatives and trade groups linked to Colli Berici, the opposition window is the stage at which concerns about costs, market positioning or technical requirements can still be raised before the amendment moves forward.
The notice also places the proposal in a longer legal history for the denomination. “Colli Berici” was originally recognized by presidential decree on Sept. 20, 1973, published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 4, 1974, when the denomination of controlled origin for the wines was established and its production rules were approved. The ministry noted that the production specification was most recently amended at the European level through Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/843 of May 24, 2022.
The publication now gives producers and other affected parties a defined period to study the attached proposal and decide whether to respond. Under the procedure cited by the ministry, objections must be sent to aoo.pqa@pec.masaf.gov.it, the certified email address of the ministry office handling the case. The ministry’s notice does not indicate when a final decision would be taken after the opposition period closes.