Wine Laws in France | French Wine Quality System

There are three major bodies involved in the French Wine Laws. They are

  • Institut National des Appellations d’Orgine (INAO), which controls the hierarchy of French Quality Wines
  • Service de Repression des Fraudes, which is responsible for the implementation of the laws on wine production
  • Office National Interprofessionel des Vins de Table, which controls all French Table Wine.

There are two levels of QWPSR (Quality Wine Produced in a Specified Region) and two classes of Table Wine in France, and they are widely copied and used by EU countries. They are mentioned below in a descending order, in terms of importance or quality level.

Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AC or AOC) This is the highest wine quality level that a French wine can get. To attain this level of wine quality, several requirements need to be met, including

  • Area of production
  • Permitted grape varieties
  • Viticultural & Vinification methods such as pruning and ageing
  • The maximum permitted yield per hectare
  • The minimum alcoholic level without chaptalisation

The name before “AC” (appeared in wine labels ) is referring to the area of production (either a name of a region, a village or a vineyard). Generally speaking, the smaller the place, the higher the wine quality is. This is because a particular “vineyard” AC will impose more wine quality restrictions on top of the regional AC requirements.
Vins Delimites de Qualite Superieue (VDQS)
  • This is now a minor category in France and only represents a very small amount of French Wine Production
  • Its quality requirements are basically same as AC but are more flexible in, such as, wine grape varieties and yields.
Vins de Pays The requirements for this level of wine quality includes

  • Area of Production
  • Grape Varieties – Vins de Pays has a boarder list of grape varieties than the AC and VDQS quality levels
  • Yields – a more generous yield is allowed
  • Analytical Standards – such as alcoholic strength and the tolerance of  Sulphur Dioxide
Vins de Table Compared to the other wine quality levels

  • no restriction on grape varieties
  • no yield limit
  • can be produced anywhere in the country
  • no region, wine grape variety and vintage can be stated on the wine label
  • chaptalisation is not allowed