Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC/AOP)

The Appellation of Origin (AO) is a sign of identification and protection of a food product from a certain terroir, whose equivalent in English is PDO : Protected Designation of Origin. It is recognised under French regulation as Contrôlée (Controlled) and at the European level as Protégée (Protected). As its name suggests, the AO guarantees the origin of a wine, that is to say its typicality. Because the appellation is first of all a place, a delimited area, and then a specification containing the list of production rules to be respected. The Appellation of Origin has the merit of uniting and building consumer loyalty around a name that plays the role of a collective brand, while protecting producers from imitations. Being recognized as an appellation of origin is necessarily supported by a collective structure: the ODG (Defense and Management Organization) which brings together all the operators in the sector concerned.