The Academy of Wine

The word "appellation" derives from the Latin "appellatio" which means "the naming", the "designating". It refers to the institution of a control system embracing geographical designations not just on wines but on spirits, cheese and other types of food. Cognac, Roquefort or Bresse chickens are examples.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the vineyards of France had been gravely affected by powdery mildew, downy mildew and notably, phylloxera. Grape supplies became short, and panic rose. The notion of shortage became so deeply engrained it caused excess.

Vineyards were hastily replanted without any concern for geographic delimitation, and fine wines were blended with ordinary wines from Algeria and the Languedoc. The first region to react in self-defense was the one that most needed authenticating, Chablis. In 1900 producers in this region unified in an attempt to guarantee that only their wines deserved to carry the name, but in vain: producers from California, Australia and Spain did not care. Furthermore, drawing accepted delimitated areas turned out to be insufficient. Amazingly, scandal broke, not because of the violation of a wine name, but because of the threat of losing the quality and identity of the French's favorite cheese. Roquefort had been granted a delimitated area of production in the southern central highlands of France but did not have any specification on the most vital characteristic of what type of milk should be used to produce it, a sheep's or a cow's.

It became clear that to bring an end to this chaotic situation a set of rules needed to be instituted which included not just a wine's geographic delimitation, but also specification of grape varieties, vineyard practices and alcohol content. By 1923 Chateauneuf-du-Pape had established a legal system which was going to be the prototype for the entire appellation controlee system. In the mid 1930s the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO), a branch of the French Ministry of Agriculture, was created to manage the administration of all regulations concerning the elaboration of fine wine.

The United States government adopted a form of the French system of categorizing wine according to the producing regions' geographic features. The government's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) instituted boundaries defining American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) at the request of wineries and petitioners. Unlike appellations which are under very precise regulations, an AVA specifies only its location. Applicants must provide proof of geographic and climatic significance and historical precedent for wine production. Once an AVA is established, at least 85% of the grapes used to make a wine must be grown in the specified area. States or counties are not AVAs; they are political designations used to identify the source of a wine. The very first AVA approved in 1980 was Augusta, Missouri, followed by Napa Valley in 1981. A uniquely diverse AVA, the Napa Valley formed through geological evolution active with colliding tectonic plates, volcanic activity and successive changes in sea levels. Due to its diversity of soils and microclimates, Napa Valley has been subdivided in 14 AVAs. The first week of January 2008 Napa Valley became the first American wine region to receive protection for its name by the European Union.