FRENCH AOC SYSTEM MARRED BY COMMERCE AND POLITICS?
By JANE ANSON — from DECANTER Newsletter, Tuesday 25 June, 2013
The future direction of the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) system in France, which dates back to the 1930s, is the subject of increasingly fierce debate, with many producers both inside and outside the system calling for its overhaul.
French AOC system is marred by ‘commerce and politics‘, says analyst Geneviève Teil, a researcher for INRA, the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, ‘the system has become an economic tool instead of a safeguard of our terroir,’ she insists.
‘AOC rules are getting too far away from their origins. Regulations allow agricultural practices that destroy vineyards, such as the use of phytosanitary products on the vines that disrupt biological balance, and allow yields that are far too high, diluting the terroir’s expression. Commerce and politics are replacing quality concerns.’
At the heart of the argument are producers whose wines have been rejected from the AOC by the tasting committee that oversees the right to use the term on a wine label. (suite…)