Welcome to the Wine for Normal People audio blog. It's a quick reading of post from the Wine for Normal People

blog to satisfy your wine dorkery needs between our longer podcasts. I'm Elizabeth Schneider,

certified Somalier, certified specialist of wine, and chief normal

wine person of wine for normal people.

You can find the written versions and links to these audio blogs as well as post comments on line for normal

people dot com forward slash blog with that let's get started in defense of the AOC system, ask a European wine lover about the classification systems of Europe.

You know the ones that may drive you crazy because they require that the labels don't state the

grape on the bottle but rather the place and you're likely to get an earful. The EU classification of wine based on the French Apolation de origin,

Controlé, or AOC system is a complex categorization that designates and controls names of wines, spirits, and food.

Since the EU system is based on the AOC but is a bit broader, I'm going to focus my comments on the original.

It's still in place and the good, bad, and ugly continue to be realities,

and you can extrapolate my views to the European system at large, the protected designation of origin

system as it's called, from what I say about the AOC system.

So with that caveat, let me give some background.

The AOC system represents the evolution of more simplistic classifications

that when first instituted in 1905 were aimed at protecting discrete geographic and historical

winemaking regions.

To put it in real terms, that meant that Champagne could only come from the Champaign region and that

Bergerac in southwest France that has similar wines couldn't call their wines Bordeaux.

At the start, this easy geographical classification

seemed promising, but producers and regulators found

this didn't go far enough to protect the distinct land characteristics

...