The rise of the French appellation laws
The French have chosen to regulate quality through protection of origin for some of their agricultural products. To understand why and how this legislation was created, we have to understand the politics and history of the products that the legislation contains. How did such a system come to life? And how does it work?
The legislation has taken both Champagne, Roquefort or Bresse chicken under the wing of what is called the AOP system. AOP is an abbreviation of Appellation d’Origine Protégée. This legislation protects the most important French agricultural products. Most of the products protected are wines, but other foodstuffs are also a part of the AOP. The laws guarantee where the foodstuff originates from, and that it keeps a certain level of quality. This has made many of the products famous.
Wine came before the Romans
There has been wine production in modern-day France since about 600 BCE, in Greek colonies by the southeastern coast. Archaeologists suggest that there has been grape growing there long before this time.
As the Roman empire expanded between 100 BCE to 100 CE, wine production spread over the Gallic areas. This was due to great demand, small supply and high cost of transport of wine to the Gallic areas.
When the Roman empire collapsed, so did a lot of the wine culture in the northern part of what is now France. Invading German tribes had no culture for wine growing and -production. This created a divide between the tempered south and the cooler north. In the south, wine was an everyday commodity. In the cooler north, wine was exotic and a luxury.
The laws of Charlemagne
The creation of the Carolignian royal line around 800CE started the next big step of progress in French wine history. The emperor Charlemagne started to systemize the laws of the Frankish realm. He also imposed strict hygiene laws for wine production, where foot threading of grapes, among other things, became illegal.
Through the middle ages, wine areas along riversides developed strongly. Rivers made for far easier and less risky transport of wine than by the roads. This held especially true for port cities like Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Rouen. They developed to become epicentres for wine trade in their respective areas. From the mid 1100s, and to when the papal seat moved from Rome to Avignon in 1305, the political situation also made a strong market for the wines of Burgundy.
After the Roman empire fell, the church became the most important contributor for maintaining wine production in Europe. This was an era of missing infrastructure and great poverty. Still, wine was essential to conduct the communion — one of the most important rituals of Christian belief. The monks organized the vineyards by quality, and by which distinctive features they added to the wine. In Burgundy, many of these vineyard delineations defined by the monks are still in effect today.
Wine becomes academics
The age of enlightenment brought specialised books about wine. Dissertation sur la situation de Bourgogne written by Claude Arnoux in 1728, was among the earliest of these. In the 1800s, literature about oenology and viticulture -the teachings on winemaking and wine growing - expanded rapidly. These three authors especially, made lasting contributions to the field:
Jean-Antoine Chaptal (1756–1832) was the Minister of the Interior under Napoleon Bonaparte. His Traité théorique et pratique sur la culture de la vigne (1801) educated winemakers on how to produce quality wine. Chaptal argued for the addition of sugar to the grape must, to increase the alcohol level in the finished wine — today known as chaptalization.
Jules Guyot (1807–1872) was hired by Napoleon III to examine how viticulture could be improved. The Guyot pruning method carries his name as a result of these investigations. This is today among the most common pruning methods in the world.
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) introduced pasteurization. This is the process of heating the grape must to stabilize it. The process is perhaps more known as a common sanitary practice in the dairy industry. He was also the first to do a detailed examination into the role of the yeast in the fermentation of the must.
These works contributed to the recognition of winemaking and wine production as academic disciplines. This led to the establishment of the University of California, now UC Davis, and the Institute of Oenlogy at the University of Bordeaux — both in 1880. These disciplines are widespread in universities in most wine producing countries.
The 1855 classification — a turning point
The 1855 classification in Bordeaux is the most famous classification of a wine area throughout time. Since Roman times, the coastal city of Bordeaux has been a centre for commerce and an important outpost. Throughout history, goods have been shipped on the rivers of Garonne and Dordogne, and to Bordeaux. There, they were either used, or shipped further to remote destinations. For a long time, the British and the Dutch were Bordeaux’s most important customers. This was in part because Bordeaux was under British rule from 1154–1453, and partly due to its close geographical proximity to Britain. It was also a result of the massive Dutch commercial activities.
The two markets the British and the Dutch represented, were fundamentally different. The Dutch were a seafaring nation that wanted to bring wine with them to new markets. The British drank the wine themselves. The Dutch were concerned with price. The wine was going to travel for long distances, and would to some degree decay in the course of the journey. The relatively short distance to Britain did so that the wine largely stayed fresh. There, the upper middle class took a large interest in the wine, which in turn made the prices skyrocket.
A top tier emerges in Bordeaux
The British became more and more adamant about which wines they wanted to drink. This made the demand for wines from specific houses grow. The houses Latour, Lafite and Margaux became immensely popular. So did Haut-Brion. The four houses became so popular that a separate price regime grew around them. These houses started to be known as first growths, or premier crus.
The prices these houses got for their wine, also created an interest for other producers in the area. Quality and price layers started to form under these first growths. The different crus emerged as a market function between the different producers and merchants.
The international exhibition in Paris
In 1855, the emperor Napoleon III decided that there was to be an international exhibition in Paris. Goods from all over the world were sent to the exhibition. Bordeaux was only allowed to send 6 bottles of each wine they had selected to represent the region. This was only enough to place one of each bottle on exhibition, and to serve a trial tasting for a panel of judges. How could Bordeaux show their wines to the thousands of visitors in the exhibition?
The Bordeaux chamber of commerce ordered a map to show the best Bordeaux had to offer. The chamber asked the brokers union, a group of negociants, producers and merchants, to make a list of which houses should be part of this map.
The work of creating this list started on April 5th, 1855. The brokers union did not have much time as the international exhibition was only a month away. In the course of 2 weeks, they summarized a list of 61 houses classified into 5 different crus. They based the list on which wine prices the different houses had obtained historically. On April 18th, 1855 they had finished. Now, over 150 years later, the list has only had two changes.
Disasters and cheating
The French saw the reputation for their wines grow, with a following surge in prices, during the first part of the 1800s. Catastrophe marked the other half of the century.
From 1850 and onwards, a series of diseases like Oidium, a type of rot — and Phylloxera, a louse that attacks the rootstock of the plants, rode France like a mare. These diseases destroyed 80 percent of the world’s vineyards, hitting France especially hard. The producers didn’t manage to fill the great demand for French wine. A great market for counterfeits surfaced.
Many of the wine producing countries in the new world used the occasion to gain entry into the market. They stole wine names, calling their wines things like like “Hearty Burgundy”, “Chablis” or “Champagne”. Adding water, sugar and artificial colourings, were also common. A curious case was when the merchants of Burgundy sold Algerian red wine as “Bourgogne Rouge”. This started a discussion towards what “the real deal” was, and should be:
«For instance, differences of opinion arose between négociants (merchant-manufacturers) and vignerons (vine growers) as to what genuine Champagne consisted of. Could merchants based in the département of Marne source their grapes from outside the region and still label the end product as Champagne? What about Champagne houses based within the traditional region of production, who exported grapes to Germany for crushing and bottling? Guy asks: ‘What was Champagne? Was it a blend of certain types of grapes? Was it a blend of grapes from an exclusive region? What were the boundaries of that region? Was there a relation between these boundaries and the manufacturing of the wine [and] what was the basis for these limits and boundaries?’»
— Dr. Dev S. Gangee: A geology of terroir -Wine Appellations in France
There was clear need to start working with area definitions and protections of their wines.
A legislation starts to form
Towards the last years of the 1800s, several single laws were passed to secure the quality of the wines. One of these was loi Griffe, passed August 14th, 1889. The law defined wine as a drink made by fermenting fresh grapes. Thus, the producers weren’t allowed to water out the wine or put additives in it any longer.
It isn’t only wine laws that have affected wine growing in France. Other examples are Napoleons’ dividing of the church property, and the introduction of strict inheritance laws. These laws led to the majority of the vineyards e.g. in Burgundy becoming divided between a multitude of owners. As a result, today we see a fragmentation of the taste expression of many vineyards in Burgundy.
“Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
The legislation sat in system
The first systematic attempt to stop forgeries was the wine law of August 1st, 1905. However, this law was limited to demand that the wine merchants had to be truthful in regards to where the wine was from. France started to see the contours of the wine laws we know today, but it was still missing the protection of origin and the quality criteria.
A decree on September 3rd 1907, protected the area names in that only owners, managers and negociants in these areas were allowed to use the area names. The problem with this law was that it didn’t give any rules regulating the quality of the wines produced. This made it more lucrative to make wine of poor quality in the regulated areas. The quality producers suffered.
Joseph Capus, one of the foremost architects of the AOC system, understood this. In the course of 30 years he argued that besides a protection of origin, the areas’ production methods also had to be covered by the legislation. This was the only way to keep producing wine of the quality that had made the areas famous.
The Roquefort cheese was the first agricultural product that received the AOC protection, in 1925. This cheese was under the protection of law since the 1400s, when its production monopole was acknowledged by king Charles VI.
Unrest in Bordeaux
The laws weren’t passed without protest. In Bordeaux, the negociants had long traditions to bring wine from outside of Bordeaux, down the rivers of Garonne and Dordogne. Here, the vignerons mixed them into the Bordeaux wines. The laws designating the origins of the grapes, meant that the negociants now had to buy all the wine from within the boundaries of Bordeaux. The negociants were afraid that the wine growers would work to produce the highest possible yield in the vineyards. This would have a very negative impact on the quality of the wine. A high yield in the vineyards translates to watery grapes with both little taste and sugar.
The Champagne rebellion
In Champagne, aggressive protests erupted against the new wine legislation. When the French government decided to leave the area of Aube out of Champagne, the area stood at risk of civil war. On one occasion, over 5000 rebels marched against Äy and then Epernay. 15 000 soldiers from the French army were sent to suppress the protests.
The legislation of 1919 expanded and followed up on many of the same ideas. The origin delimitation was the most important basic factor. Basic requirements for quality didn’t arrive before the amendment of this legislation in 1927.
The 1927 amendment was created to accommodate the ongoing discourse in Champagne. A standard set of grapes seen as beneficial to the area was stipulated, and some hybrids were prohibited. At the same time the traditional second fermentation in the bottle was assured as the only legal way to produce Champagne. This was not only an acknowledgement of the human impact on the wine production. It was also an important step to make a recognisable brand.
The national appellation institute is opened
July 30th 1935 the Comite National Des Appellations d’Origine (CNAO) was founded to accommodate both public and private interests. The committee originally had two tasks: it was to define and delimit the appellations, and to strike down on illegal use of the appellation names. The Committee was also made a regulatory body to hinder overproduction.
In 1936, Châteauneuf-du-Pape became the first of the countrys’ wines to receive the AOC designation.
In 1947, the organization changed its name to Institut National des Appellations d’Origine. Today it is named Institut Nationale de l’origine et de la qualite, even though it has kept the acronym INAO. The appellation system has evolved to become an intricate tool to protect French brands, and to secure typisity and quality.
The worlds’ oldest wholesome classification system for wine
The French AOC system is the oldest and most complex classification system for wine in the world. Most of the wine classification systems in the world are based on the French idea that certain areas give certain qualities to the wines. The system is based on designating specific terroirs as well as a protection of typical production methods for its wines.
To create further confusion, the AOC or Appellation d’Origine Controlée changed its name to AOP, or Appellation d’Origine Protegée in 2012. This was an attempt to create unity between the terms of quality within the European Union.
The three classes of quality
The EU legislation classifies the French AOP system in two categories. One category is for the wines that fall within the EUs table wine classification. The other category is for the “quality wine produced in a specific region”-category (QWPSR). In the French wine system, quality wine is split in two:
- Vin de France: Wine without a geographical indication. VdF replaces the earlier classification of Vin de Table. As opposed to earlier, it is now allowed to indicate type of grape(s) and vintage on the label.
- Indication Géographique Protégée: is quality wines with a geographical indication. IGP replaces Vin de Pays as a middle category in the French system. This category can specify regional indications on the label, but is not allowed to use the more renowned AOP-names. The producers can use more grape varieties and production methods than those following the rules of the AOP. Wines must be sent to analysis, and there are rules to which grape varieties or combinations of these one is allowed to use.
- Appellation d’Origine Protégée: AOP is quality wine with a protected designation of origin. This is the highest category in French wine law. Wines from the traditional wine areas comes in under this category, as long as they fulfill the demands of their appellation.
How are new AOPs made?
Today, INAO handles the creation of new AOPs. This is usually a process where local producers send an application about a creation of an AOP. They describe the areas’ famousness and affiliation to the area, and give a detailed description of the production process. This application is sent to the regional INAO office, that in turn furthers the application to INAO on a national level. A commission of inquiry is then created. This reports to the national committee with a recommendation. If the application gets approved, an expert commission is set down to establish the geographical delimitations. After this, a draft for a decree is sent to the Ministry of agriculture for approval and implementation.
In addition to this national legislation, the different areas also have their own laws, most of them so-called cru systems — quality classifications of the vineyards within each appellation (AOP). These have a different function from region to region, and are given different importance.
Different systems in different regions
In Champagne, different villages’ cru status decides how many percent of an annual rate the grape growers are paid per ton of grapes. The lowest ranked communes gets 80% of this rate. The premier cru villages get 90–99% of the rate, and the grand cru villages, 100% of the rate. Even though this is based on the historical quality of the village grapes, it has a lesser impact on the price for the finished product, than in for instance Bordeaux — where the crus are awarded to single houses, based on the highest historical prices.
In Burgundy, there is a third system, where the vineyards are ranked in four different levels. First we find a regional appellation where the grapes can originate from all the Burgundy region. Thereafter, there are named communal appellations, and then premier cru and, on top, grand cru single vineyards. Most of these vineyards were marked up by cistercienser munks around 1000 years ago. The boundaries of the vineyards have barely been moved since, and the mosaic of different soil types in Burgundy contributes great importance to the final quality of the wine.
Simpler quality hierarchies in some regions
In some areas, like Alsace or Beaujolais, there are two levels: cru or grand cru — and a communal/regional appellation (with the possible addition of so-called lieu dits, named vineyards that don’t have a cru designation). Lastly, we also find areas with only a communal/regional appellation — like Sancerre.
This means the regions must be handled separately when you want to understand the information on a wine label. On top of this, some movements, not unlike the so called “super tuscans”, are happening: Groups of winemakers that either are disagreeing with or dissatisfied with the AOP system chooses to take their wines out of the AOP. Instead, they choose to sell their wines under a lower classification — in spite that the wines they produce is of obvious AOP quality.
Other Products
Not only wine is protected by the AOP, even though the main depth of products are found here. In addition to the aforementioned roquefort cheese, over 40 other cheeses have also gotten an AOP designation. Of other wares, Bresse chicken, lamb from the Somme area, essential lavender oil from Haute-Provence, honey from Corsica, lentils from Le Puy-en-Velay, some types of liqueur and spirits, and finally some types of butter have gotten the AOPs protection. These are all products of a special historical importance for the country.
The function of the AOP system
The AOP system was first made to stop forgeries in a pressured market after some extremely destructive plant disease epidemics razed European wine production through the second half of the 1800s. The system also soon became the most important tool to build up and make stronger the brands that the products represented.
Rather than marketing wine grapes, the French wanted to market the regions and the products from them by their uniqueness. It doesn’t say pinot noir on the label of a bottle of red Burgundy. Rather, it says Bourgogne Rouge, even though the wine is made solely from this grape. The grapes that go into a champagne are not to be found on the front label, even though you’ll find single grape variety wines also here. This brand thinking is prevalent in Europe, and in opposition to the production in new wine countries like Australia or USA.
Exciting issues
There are a lot of exciting issues around the French appellation system. The idea of terroir as the foundation for the protection of origin is interesting because it on one hand makes strong markets for the most famous regions. On the other hand it is also limiting because it complicates information to the consumer. It also competes with much more grape based marketing from countries especially outside of Europe.
The AOP is the most complex and holistic wine law system in the world. The legislation has evolved as an act of necessity, growing forth with challenges of what historically has been — and arguably still is — the worlds’ foremost wine nation. The legislation holds everything from the development of pricing systems, as Bordeaux’ classification is a result of — to a brutal fight against vine diseases and forgeries — in competition with new markets and higher competition.
An attempt to meet the growing competition
The 2012 legislation tries to meet the growing competition, especially from the new world, through simplification of some systems. This is a work that is taking place on a supranational plan in the European Union. The EU has since the mid 2000s worked to make a greater unity between its different legislations of origin, to a large extent following the French model. Maybe the EU legislation, based on the French AOP principles, can be a way to create a simpler approach to wine for the everyday consumer — and to strengthen the whole union in battle with wines and other products from the rest of the world.
