French AOC wines can now experiment

n June 29 and 30, the national wine, alcoholic beverage and spirits appellation board at INAO gave AOC winegrowers the opportunity once and for all to rise to the challenge of resilience to climate change and respond to new social needs.

After a three-month consultation phase involving the regional wine appellation committees, the national board gave the go-ahead for the terms on which winegrowers will be able to conduct experiments in the vineyard or the winery. The innovation assessment scheme approved on June 30 stipulates that “as a general rule, 10% at most of volumes stemming from these innovations will be eligible for blending with commercially available products”. The number of innovations will also be limited to one per major section of production specifications, “unless otherwise justified by the regional appellation committees, particularly with regard to the lack of interference between the innovations and fallback issues”.

Appellation production specifications can therefore introduce “on a small scale and for a given timeframe, innovative production conditions, vineyard management techniques or winemaking practices, as part of a suitable, monitored protocol based on an application that outlines the scientific basis for the proposals, conditions for monitoring them by a technical body chosen by the producers’ organisation and the draft agreement between the organisation, relevant producers and INAO”.