Quality designation for DOC/DOCG wines in Italy with higher quality requirements. It is mainly used for wines with longer ageing (usually at least two and more years). The regulations may differ for each DOC/DOCG area. The preliminary stage to Riserva is "Vecchio" (old) with lower requirements, the increase is "Riserva Speciale" with even higher requirements. There is a certain overlap with the quality term Superiore. Reserva in Spain and Portugal and Reserve in Germany and Austria have a similar meaning.
![]()
Serious sources on the internet are rare - and Wine lexicon from wein.plus is one such source. When researching for my articles, I regularly consult the wein.plus encyclopaedia. There I get reliable and detailed information.
Thomas Götz
Weinberater, Weinblogger und Journalist; Schwendi