Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (A.O.C)

Established in 1935, the A.O.C. defines and enforces the standards that tie a product to a specific geographic area. Although the A.O.C. has authority over numerous products (cheese, produce, etc.), it is its role in the production of French wine that is of the greatest interest.

As of late 2007, every major wine growing region in France has an A.O.C. classification (Languedoc-Roussillon area just recently received the Coteaux du Languedoc designation). Within each wine growing region, individual appellations have been established. An appellation is nothing more than an indicator as to the grape source of the wine as well as other factors influencing production including defined varietals, yield, growing practices, and alcohol content.

In summary, there are multiple wine growing regions defined and each defined region has a list of appellations providing even greater detail as to the regional source of the wine. Although there are many factors that make up each appellation, the single most important factor is the definition of the land from which the producing grape was grown.

Naturally, some appellations define a much broader area than others. As an example, Burgundy has the greatest number of appellations. A wine labeled as the appellation Bourgogne means the grapes could have been grown anywhere within the defined wine growing region of Burgundy. Conversely, a wine labeled as the appellation Le Musigny means the grapes were grown within the Grand Cru classified vineyards of the Chambolle-Musigny village within the heart of the Cote de Nuits district of Burgundy between the altitudes of 260m and 300m above sea level. Thus, some appellations define a more narrow area than others.

Aside from the geographic location, there is an additional definition of the appellation that is equally important and that is the grape used to produce the wine. Every appellation provides a definition of the grapes to be used for both red and white. This is where French wine becomes its most confusing for most people. Simply put, New World wine producers tend to label wine by the grape (Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir, Chardonnay, etc.) while Old World wine producers label by the physical land mass on which the grape was grown as a defined appellation.

So, in order to know what type of wine is in the bottle in question, you must know what makes up the defined appellation, period. There is no short cut to this understanding. Every wine growing region produces a particular range of wines and many variances exist within each region.

Additionally, each wine growing region maintains its own classification system for quality as well as differing methods for winery identification and labeling. It is this variance between regions that makes it so important to study each wine growing region separately as to insure proper understanding.