Italian lawmakers press to allow disease-resistant grapes in DOC and DOCG wines

A new parliamentary push in Italy is putting disease-resistant grape varieties back at the center of the country’s wine policy debate, raising the prospect of future changes for some of its most protected appellations.

On Oct. 20, lawmakers in the lower house submitted a formal question to Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida asking what steps the government plans to take to allow so-called PIWI grape varieties to be included in the production rules for DOC and DOCG wines. Those labels are Italy’s protected denomination categories for wines tied to specific places, methods and grape varieties.

The move does not change the law now in force, and Italian wineries still cannot use interspecific PIWI grapes in DOC or DOCG wines. Any opening would require a legislative change first, followed by case-by-case revisions to individual appellation rules.

The issue has been under discussion for years, but it returned to the political agenda this month after Senate Vice President Gian Marco Centinaio of the League and Democratic Party lawmaker Antonella Forattini announced a bipartisan effort during an Oct. 10 event in Voghera focused on Pinot Noir, water availability, temperatures and resistant grape varieties.

The parliamentary question filed on Oct. 20, registered as no. 5-05886, was presented by Forattini together with lawmakers Marino, Romeo, Andrea Rossi and Vaccari. It asks whether the government intends to promote changes to Article 33 of Italy’s 2016 consolidated wine law, support research on resistant varieties and open consultations with regional authorities, protection consortia, farm organizations and scientific bodies.

At the center of the dispute is Article 33 of Law 238/2016, known as the Testo Unico del vino, or consolidated wine law. Paragraph 6 bars wines made, even in part, from interspecific hybrids between Vitis vinifera and other American or Asian vine species from using denomination-of-origin labels. That means the ban applies to DOC and DOCG wines.

Under the current framework, wineries may use grape varieties listed in the national vine register for some IGT wines, a lower level of geographic indication, if regional rules and the wine’s production code allow it. But the same flexibility does not apply to DOC and DOCG wines, even if a PIWI grape is authorized for cultivation in the region where the vineyard is located.

The Italian restriction stands alongside a broader European framework that already allows the possibility of using crosses between Vitis vinifera and other species of the Vitis genus in PDO wine production. In practice, however, Italy’s national law still blocks that route for its denomination wines.

This is not the first attempt to change the rule. On May 28, 2024, Senator Pietro Patton introduced bill no. 1152, which proposed repealing paragraph 6 of Article 33 and rewriting paragraph 7 to extend to DOC wines the possibility of using varieties listed in the national register. The bill was assigned to a Senate committee on June 18, 2024, but its review has not yet started.

What has changed now is the renewed political backing from lawmakers in both the governing coalition and the opposition.

PIWI varieties are bred through conventional crossing methods to improve resistance to fungal vine diseases, especially downy mildew and powdery mildew. Supporters say that makes them increasingly relevant as growers face disease pressure, higher production costs and more variable weather. In practical terms, wider use of those varieties could reduce the number of crop protection treatments needed in some vineyards, lowering costs and machine use and potentially reducing environmental impact. That could matter for the beverage sector if lawmakers eventually open Italy’s top wine appellations to those grapes, though any effect would depend on legal reform and decisions by individual denominations.

The potential interest is often strongest in humid growing areas or in steep and terraced vineyards where repeated spraying is difficult and expensive. But greater resistance does not mean complete immunity. The level of protection still depends on the variety, the disease pressure and the climate conditions in a given year.

According to figures cited in the 2026 parliamentary debate, 36 PIWI varieties are currently listed in Italy’s national register, split evenly between 18 white and 18 red grapes. Their cultivation remains subject to regional rules.

The lawmakers behind the latest initiative have also stressed that any eventual opening should be accompanied by enological evaluation and transparent procedures to protect the typical character of denomination wines. That point reflects a central concern in Italy’s wine sector: whether innovation can be introduced without weakening the identity that DOC and DOCG rules are meant to protect.

Even if Parliament changes the law, wineries would not gain immediate freedom to use any resistant grape in any denomination wine. Each DOC or DOCG has its own production code, which sets the permitted grapes and their proportions. To admit new PIWI varieties, the relevant denomination would still need its rules to be formally revised through the procedures set by law.

That would leave a major role to protection consortia and producers, who would have to decide whether a resistant variety is compatible with the style, recognition and historical identity of a given appellation.

Some denominations have already explored the subject through research. Industry discussions have cited the Delle Venezie DOC as one example of a denomination that has carried out experimental work on resistant varieties for Pinot Grigio production. Those trials are aimed at gathering agronomic and winemaking data, not at granting general commercial authorization for PIWI use in DOC wines.

The broader debate has drawn in leading figures from the Italian wine world, including Attilio Scienza, Luciano Brancadoro and winemaker Nicola Biasi, who took part in the Voghera meeting. Their involvement reflects how the discussion has moved beyond politics into questions of farming practice, wine quality and long-term adaptation to climate and disease pressures.

For now, however, the legal position is unchanged. Italy’s denomination wines remain subject to the ban in Article 33, and the Oct. 20 parliamentary question sets no deadline for a government response or for a draft law to move forward. The next steps will depend on Lollobrigida’s reply, any revival of Patton’s Senate bill and whether Parliament decides to take up a broader reform of the wine law.