The French Wine Appellation System

The intensification of globalization has led to fierce international competition, regulated under the World Trade Organization. The push for full trade liberalization, as articulated at the Marrakesh, Cancún, and Doha summits, is facing resistance.

The Origins of the First Designation of Origin

The Appellation d’Origine (AOC) was established in the early 20th century. The phylloxera crisis of 1880 had severely damaged wine production in the country, and counterfeit “wines”—made by mixing fruit juice, food coloring, tartaric acid, and alcohol—were sold throughout the country to meet demand. In response to this crisis, the “Natural Wine” designation was created, defining wine as that obtained by the fermentation of grapes. This definition, along with the emergence of the first GIs, was primarily intended to combat fraud. The line between GIs and standards for food production was then a fine one. Nevertheless, constant pressure from professional organizations in the wake of successive crises (1911, 1913) led policymakers to legally define geographical areas based on “local, fair, and consistent” production standards. Many cheeses and wines obtained AOCs during the first quarter of the century.
Soon, the need for organized producer federations became apparent. The INAO (National Institute of Appellations of Origin), created in 1935, was tasked with organizing production toward a collective reputation and helping producers protect it (Capus, 1937).
In the 1970s, as the European wine market expanded, quality measures were needed to organize supply in the sector. The concept of “typicality” seemed to distinguish and justify the regional origins of different products. AOCs champion this concept of tipicità and are primarily reserved for regions in difficulty facing successive crises. Nevertheless, they do not refer to any quality standards. It is a tool for differentiating wines, but it does not aim to segment or classify wines based on their intrinsic qualities (Casabianca, Sylvander et al., 2005).

The AOC system’s emphasis on quality

It was not until 1885 that the AOC system began to focus on product quality. The French Ministry consolidated all relevant provisions under the policy of “quality and origin labels.”
Gilbert Louis wrote in the 2001 report of the Economic and Social Council:
“Official quality and origin labels are not a recent opportunistic response to market segmentation. This is a long-term endeavor, begun in the early 20th century, aimed at equipping France with competitive tools—based on quality and origin—for the benefit of consumers and producers and for better organization of the national territory.
French agricultural development relies on local initiative, and the promotion of quality appears to be the best tool for rural development.
AOCs are becoming more multifunctional as they serve as quality labels, and the production rules they entail are often strengthened for this purpose.
Today, AOCs are not only responsible for the consistent quality and style of their winemakers’ production, but also for protecting their image, status, and name at the national and international levels, as evidenced by Champagne’s regulatory body: the CIVC.