The “Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée” label
The AOC is the fusion of a terroir (soil, climate), one or more plant varieties and a tradition, a human know-how. The result of this fusion of elements is to confer organoleptic characteristics on a food product that cannot be reproduced elsewhere, since not all the elements can be transposed to another site. This is known as TYPICITY, and is recognized by consumers. Provided that the terroir (soil + climate) has its own specific characteristics, that the interaction between plant varieties and terroir is strong, and that tradition and customs are respected by man. Man is at the service of the terroir. His role is to highlight its intrinsic characteristics. Any action that distorts this authentic characteristic would be contrary to the spirit of the AOC.
THE AOC DEFENSE SYNDICATE
Its mission is to preserve the integrity of the expression of the terroir through its definition (delimitation), and the characteristics of the product from which it is made (production conditions), thus defending the AOC as such. The mission of the AOC Syndicat is therefore intrinsically and essentially to request this delimitation and propose the conditions of production to be included in the decree, and to ensure compliance with the decree once published by all producers. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with the INAO, which brings together appointed professionals.
The INAO supervises the AOC Syndicates, as the legislator intended in 1935, to ensure that the wishes expressed do not run counter to the mission of preserving the integrity, authenticity and originality of the AOC. In particular, INAO cannot accept proposals motivated by short-term standardizing, industrializing or trivializing interests, which would inevitably jeopardize long-term interests. Asset management is underpinned by an interest in preserving, over the long term, what professionals have received and what they will have to return in the same condition. The Syndicats d’AOC are therefore entrusted with the task of preserving their heritage. We must preserve the land we are borrowing from our children”. So, logically, each AOC should have its own specific Syndicat de défense de l’AOC.
INAO – Definition
As a public administrative establishment, the legislator wanted the AOC, an essential part of the national heritage, to be managed on behalf of the government (whose responsibility it is) by the AOC Syndicates under the supervision of the INAO. To this end, the Ministry of Agriculture, on behalf of the Government, delegates its powers to INAO, which is made up of professionals appointed by the Ministry (and not elected by their peers, which would make it impossible in this case for the Minister, the only person authorized to do so, to delegate public power). INAO therefore has the legal capacity to legislate by decree. By its very nature, the public law text is binding on all producers, and public power can be used if it is not respected. By virtue of their status, INAO members are INDEPENDENT, appointed by decree for 6 years. Within their field of competence, which is solely the management of AOCs as such, they draw up horizontal texts for questions of a general nature, and specific texts at the request of the AOC Syndicate concerned for questions of a particular nature.
The professionals are the only members of the CNINAO with the decision-making power to validate orientations in the specific field of AOC.
Role :
– Its mission is to ensure the proper management of AOCs by AOC Syndicates.
– Drawing up AOC decrees: i.e. transforming into public law the production conditions desired by the Syndicats after validation by the CNINAO.
– Adapt the doctrine by preserving it through horizontal texts to respond to changes, correct deviations and fill gaps.
Composition:
– Professionals: 55 winegrowers and merchants chosen from the 13 Regional Committees.
– Qualified personalities: 18 people chosen for their particular expertise.
– Administrations: 10 representatives Agriculture, Competition and Fraud Control, Customs.
Professionals sit on the Board intuitu personae. In other words, their mission is to participate in the accomplishment of INAO’s missions, independently of their region of origin or professional family.
THE LEGAL NATURE OF AOC
The AOC is governed by public law. The land, the vines and the wine belong to the winegrowers (private law). The AOC is part of the national heritage, and therefore subject to public law. In other words, it is the property of the nation, managed by the government on behalf of the French state. To this end, the 1935 legislation delegated the management and preservation of this national heritage to those who had the knowledge and know-how: the winegrowers themselves, united in AOC Syndicates. The AOC Syndicate submits the conditions of production defined at their general assemblies to the INAO, the legal guardian of the AOC Syndicates (competence linked with the Ministry of Agriculture). The INAO will have the power to transform the wishes of the AOC Syndicate, after validation by the National Committee (CNINAO), into an AOC DECREE, which by its nature of public law will transform a collective will of private law into a text of public law binding on all and enforceable against third parties. The decree confers on the AOC the guarantee of the State and the power of the public authorities to ensure that it is respected.
THE AOC DECREE
It basically comprises :
– Boundaries
– Production conditions
DELIMITATION
Made at the request of professionals, it is drawn up by independent experts appointed by the INAO, whose task it is to settle any disputes.
PRODUCTION CONDITIONS
Proposed by professionals, they will be examined by an INAO commission of inquiry, whose task will be to investigate and inform the National Committee on the decision to be taken, if necessary by modifying them, before including them in the decree. Professionals must pay close attention to the quality of the drafting of the decree. Indeed, it is the correctness of the production conditions set out in the decree at the general meeting of the AOC Syndicate that will be the only weapon – albeit an absolute weapon – to compel all producers to respect the production conditions. If the decree is poorly drafted to guarantee the preservation of typicity, it will be no surprise to see uncontrollable drifts. It is the role and mission of the Syndicat, in natural synergy with the INAO, to ensure that all producers comply with the decree.
The decree is therefore the cornerstone of the proper management of the AOC. It achieves three objectives:
– Guaranteeing origin, i.e. what makes a wine characteristic of its terroir, thus affirming its difference and identity (among other things, ensuring that there is no yield drift leading to dilution of the terroir’s expression).
– Guaranteeing quality. If origin is the cause of the AOC, the consequence of compliance with production conditions (provided they are sufficiently precise) is quality (in particular, ensuring that the technology used enhances the expression of the terroir, and above all does not trivialize this objective). In fact, origin and quality are both necessary but not sufficient conditions. Together, they form the necessary and sufficient conditions for a perfect AOC. A wine of origin without quality is not an AOC (as the consumer understands it). A quality wine without characteristics unrelated to its origin is not an AOC.
– Moreover, guaranteeing the environment Origin and quality can only endure if, in the background, there are no conditions linked to the protection of the terroir and the environment. An AOC cannot flourish in an undignified environment, if we tolerate farming practices that are contrary to the preservation and future of the terroir.
AOC RECOGNITION
There is no such thing as a terroir without people. The first condition is that a group of men identify a terroir, adjust the plant variety by agreeing on the production conditions necessary to bring out the best organoleptic expression linked to this terroir. As the years go by, the more relevant the approach, the more quickly consumers will demand this production rather than any other, regardless of its value, simply because they will find in the product a specificity that does not exist elsewhere. Once this reputation has been established, the risks of unfair competition will become ever more pressing, hence the need for INAO to
CONSACRATE THIS NOTORYTE by recognition as an AOC, with two immediate effects:
– The decree protects producers from unfair market practices.
– Consumer protection by guaranteeing origin and quality. It’s clear, then, that creating an AOC without brand recognition is doomed to a neutral outcome, and that applications must be carefully studied to consolidate a position.
THE IMPACT OF AOC
If this approach is successful, the results will be fivefold. Complementary positioning on the market, rather than competition, since the difference is due to the typicality of the product (producers are still involved in defining the price). Creation of added value that is irrational in relation to the cost price, since supply is limited by delimitation and production conditions, and if demand is increased by notoriety, the only way out is to raise prices. This notoriety contributes to France’s image through exports (45 billion francs a year, or the equivalent of 600 TGV trains or 125 Airbus planes) at little or no cost to the taxpayer. 80,000 farms that make a living from their production and retain decision-making power, even over small areas.
It’s also about protecting nature, by preserving the environment in order to preserve the terroir. Lastly, it makes a significant contribution to regional development by maintaining agriculture and thus a population in disadvantaged or arid areas that would be or would have been abandoned without the added value provided by the AOC, which by definition can only take on its full meaning in this precise location. Last but not least, it’s not just a wine for pleasure, but also the expression of cultural, sociological, historical, geographical, geological and pedological dimensions. AOC is the soul of a terroir and the spirit of a region.