A promise on the label
An appellation is a legally defined wine region with rules attached. It's a promise: that a wine named after a place really comes from there, and was made to that area's standards.
- It protects the name — only wine from Champagne may be called Champagne.
- It often dictates which grapes, yields and methods are allowed.
- It gives the drinker a guarantee of origin (and a hint of style).
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Born in France
The model began in France in the 1930s as AOC, partly to stop fraud. The EU now wraps these schemes under two umbrellas: PDO and PGI.