Wine Appellations

The term appellation is French and refers to a specific wine region distinguished by geographical features. Their rules and guidelines consider the soil, climate, sun, water quality, and contour of a region combined to produce a style of wine that simply can't be duplicated elsewhere. The size of an appellation can range from very small plots of land to huge areas that cover hundreds of miles.

American wines emphasize varietal over place but European winemakers take the opposite approach. In 1935 France founded the Institute National Des Appellations d'Origine, becoming the first nation to set up a countrywide system based on geography for controlling the origin and quality of its wines. Their Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC) plan originated as a preventative measure during the Depression to protect French winemakers and consumers from fraudulent and inferior wine blending practices of some unethical French wine brokers. Since that time other countries have adopted similar regulatory controls.

In the U.S. appellations are known as American Viticultural Areas or AVAs. This has become highly political in the U.S. and the TTB who is tasked with managing AVAs has lost control. There are AVAs that make up a single farm with little or no regard to standards. However, the American Viticultural Area carries a different connotation than the French appellation of origin. Labels, for instance, may identify a wine's AVA when a minimum of 85% of the grapes used comes from within that specified AVA, while French AOC regulations have stricter guidelines which include vineyard location, varietal, growing technique, crop yield, grape ripeness and ensuing alcohol content, and winemaking practices.

The Appellations Represented by MDM

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