The EU attempt to bring more consistent uniformity to member States wine quality classifications has led to more than a little confusion. The introduction of the EU quality pyramid consisting of the quality categories "wine" at the bottom, PGI in the middle and PDO at the top of the quality ladder is attempt to standardize verbiage. However, each is translated into the native language of each individual member Nation and that alone can be a challenge to decipher. The adoption of the EU pyramid also left grandfathered any country specific PDO level terminology established before 2011. This would have included a slew of DOC, DOCG from Italy, DO and DOCa from Spain, AOC from France and so on. 

A better understanding of the nuances and complexities involved with the traditional requirement of individual regional or sub-regional quality designations, would inform you of the futility of such attempts at uniformity. Producers in grandfathered appellations of control have the option to use either the traditional pyramid or that of that of the EU. One classic example of this is the consolidation of both DOCG and DOC Italian wines into one PDO category, where no distinctive provision was made for the DOCG level wines. 

The adoption of the PDO quality scheme did eliminate certain interim quality categories like the VDQS of France. Whether this was a benefit is questionable, as it was used as a vetting step for AOC aspirant appellation of the Vin de Pays category. 

Other member Nations like Germany and to some extent Austria were less affected due to a system based as much on sugar levels at harvest as to location. 

The pyramid itself is fairly easy to understand. PDO or Protected Denomination of Origin is the top tier quality category with the greatest restriction and requirements for production in both vineyard and cellar practices as well as geographical boundaries. In most Countries, this PDO finds wording follows the acronym DOP in actual order. PGI or Protected Geographical Indication (wording as IGP) allows for a larger geographical boundary taking in a more varied landscape and climatic area and less restrictive vineyard and winemaking practices. The bottom quality category known as "Wine" was an odd choice that was redundant and meaningless. Perhaps dressed up a little in national verbiage makes it a little better as in Vin de France, Vino de Espana or Vino de Italia and then again maybe not. Anyway, it is a pretty fast and loose category with few restrictions or requirements that are more along the idea of health department requirements for safe food production. The grapes must come from within the country if named, as in Deutcher Wein. I kinda liked the old terms like Vino da Tavola, Vin de Table and Vino de Mesa that made saying of a good bottle...Oh and its just a Vino da Tavola! sound a lot better than Oh and its just a Vino! Not to mention a lot less retarded or running the risk of implying that the hearer was such.

So what is the major equivalents for the EU pyramid? DOP is the equivalent to the traditional French AOC, the Spanish DO and DOCa, the Italian DOC and DOCG, the Portuguese DOC. The PGI is the new IGP of Italy, Spain, France and Portugal and replaced the Vin de Pays of France, IGT of Italy and VdlT of Spain and Portugal's Vinho Regional. While, the French ditched their intern AOC category of VDQS, the Spanish retained theirs known as the VCIG as a 5 year vetting designation toward potential DOC status. This category falls within the EU DOP category.

EU fans undoubtedly will always cheer anything they bring into existence but I like the independent flavor idiosyncrasies of National origin. At its best the EU pyramid brings uniformity to the quality categories of emerging wine producing Nations, whose traditional quality paradigms were either out of sync with more established systems or completely lacking. A useful template of sort.