Has French Wine Outgrown the AOC?
By Wine Atlas, Friday 9 September 2005 :: Wine - Spain :: #57 :: rss
The country's Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée classification system, around since 1935, is creaking under its own weight
Believe it or not, even the French have trouble picking out wine. Like non-French consumers, our Gallic friends are known to scan the wine aisle, glassy-eyed, wondering what is what, what goes well with what, and what is any good at all. Incroyable, non?
The confusion in choosing a French wine based on the label isn't new. To combat the problem, the French had the bright idea to create a Good Housekeeping Seal; in 1935 the Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC) system was born. Since then, it has become a sort of overarching megabrand. By giving strict guidelines to the wine industry, for example, the AOC guarantees that when you buy a Bordeaux, the grapes came from the Bordeaux region, they were treated in a certain way, there was a given amount of alcohol in the finished product, and specific grape varieties were used(...)
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