Soave (wine) share of US sales were eventually eclipsed by Pinot grigio and an influx of new wines from southern Italy. The Soave DOC was created in 1968 with those boundaries revised and expanded periodically over the next few decades. As a point of introduction, it should be said that Soave and Chianti were the first zones in Italy (in 1931) to be recognized by Royal Decree as having the potential for producing fine wines. This document delimited the borders of the production zones which, in the case of Soave, coincide with those fixed under the current production regulations for Soave Classico.
Soave (wine) minimum of 24 months (with at least 3 of those months being in the bottle) before it is released on the market. By the mid-1990s Soave was producing around 6 million cases annually with more than 80% of that being produced by the region's local co-operative and sold in bulk to importers who release the wine under private labels. A sizable amount of this wine comes from the flat "pianura" land outside the hilly classico region in the heart of the Soave zone. Most of the more critically acclaimed Soave comes from the hillside vineyards in the Classico zone though