Home > Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée

All AOC products are identified by a seal, which is printed on the label or the rind (in the case of an AOC cheese). To prevent any possible misrepresentation, no part of an AOC name may be used on a label of a product not qualifying for that AOC. However, many producers are located in towns where the AOC is the name of the town, and thus are enjoined from listing anything more than a cryptic postal code.

1 Criteria

The controlled term of origin guarantees the following product criteria:

• The product will be produced consistently in the traditional manner.
• It will be produced with ingredients from a designated geographical area, and will be made and at least partially aged in this area.
• The characteristics of the product will be consistent and in line with a clearly defined standards.
• The production is strictly regulated by a control commission following AOC-defined standards.

2 History

The origins of AOC date back to the 15th century, when Roquefort was regulated by a parliamentary decree. On July 30, 1935, the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO) was created to manage the administration of the process for wines. The AOC seal was created and mandated by French laws in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. On July 2, 1990, the scope of work of the INAO was extended beyond wines to cover other agricultural products.

3 Wine

Certain AOCs for wine are recognized as being superior to others as first established by the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Typically these are variations on "cru," the French word for growth, and depend on the region. In general, wines called "Grand Cru" are at the top of the quality hierarchy, with "premiers crus" one level below. Beneath these are simple named places. Depending on the region, a cru might be assigned to an estate or to a legally-defined vineyard area. While in theory a Grand Cru should be the finest expression of its site, it is generally a more accurate indicator of price than quality.

A more detailed discussion of various classification schemes can be found in the article on First Growths.

4 Other countries

Many other countries have based their controlled place name systems on AOC. See:

• Italy's Denominazione di Origine Controllata
• Spain's Denominación de OrigenDenominacion de origen is a quality ensurance and labelling system for Spanish wines (an appellation). It is closely modelled after the Italian DOC. It knows the same two levels of labels as the Italian system, which are named DO — D enominacion de O rige
• Portugal's Denominação de Origem Controlada
• Austria's Districtus Austria Controllatus
• South Africa's Wine of Origin

5 See also

• Protected Designation of Origin, a classification defined in European Union Law
• French wine AOCs

6 External link

• INAO website