Any introduction to French wine labels would have to begin with an understanding of the French wine term "Terroir".
Terroir is the interaction of soil, topography, growing conditions and climate that give wine grapes a unique character. Years ago someone deemed it appropriate that only certain types of grapes grow best in certain types of locations. This gave way to the regulatory system called Appellation d'origine Contrôlée, or AOC. A wine producer must grow only those grapes allowed in his or her AOC region to produce AOC wines.
The big idea behind AOC was to give the wine consumer a type of quality assurance. In time, AOC regions added criteria governing production such as allowable grape yields per acre, what kind of grapes may be blended together, how vineyards are irrigated, and so on.
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Date: 2009-08-27 09:12 pm (UTC)Any introduction to French wine labels would have to begin with an understanding of the French wine term "Terroir".
Terroir is the interaction of soil, topography, growing conditions and climate that give wine grapes a unique character. Years ago someone deemed it appropriate that only certain types of grapes grow best in certain types of locations. This gave way to the regulatory system called Appellation d'origine Contrôlée, or AOC. A wine producer must grow only those grapes allowed in his or her AOC region to produce AOC wines.
The big idea behind AOC was to give the wine consumer a type of quality assurance. In time, AOC regions added criteria governing production such as allowable grape yields per acre, what kind of grapes may be blended together, how vineyards are irrigated, and so on.