Italy & Spain

[Joel Deragon]

Why do both italy and spain have less of a concept of "cru" than france?

[Innkeeper]

Could say because it is a French word, but that's too easy. In Spain most wine is named after the region sometimes modified adjectives similar to Cru, but Spanish. In Italy all wine is local, sort of like politics in the U.S.

[wineguruchgo]

While Italy produces more wine than any other country in the world, and Spain has more acreage under vine and any other country in the world....the French have more "panties in a bunch" than anyone else in the world.

Until recently (last 30 years or so) the Italians and Spanish produced wines for their own enjoyment. It's recently that they have really concentrated on making world class wines so I'm sure they never really paid attention to it (cru system, per se) as the French have for centuries.