Appellations

SOUTH WEST VINEYARDS

Southwest France is made up of 42 name-protected appellations, 29 PDO and 13 PGI.

The promotion of its wines of protected origin is carried out by two organizations: the Wines of Southwest France Council (Interprofession des Vins du Sud-Ouest, or IVSO) representing the broadest diversity of the Wines of Southwest France, and the Bergerac Region Council (Interprofession des vins de Bergerac et Duras, or IVBD), promoting wines from the north-east part more similar to its neighboring region, Bordeaux.

Showcasing the wine diversity of Southwest France, the Wines of Southwest France Council promotes a wide range of name protected wines, including the indigenous varietals that make Southwest France unique, representing over 800 producers, cooperatives, and merchants of Southwest France. The Wines of Southwest France Council federates 28 of the region’s appellations, 16 PDO and 12 PGI.

This designates a product whose production, processing and development is carried out using recognized expertise, in the same geographical area providing the characteristics to give the product its taste, quality and its typical nature. The PDO label protects the name of a product in all EU member states.

The protected designation of origin is based on the notion of terroir. A terroir is “a geographical space defined from a human community that constructs over the course of its history a set of distinctive cultural traits, knowledge, and practices based on a system of interactions between the natural environment and human factors. The expertise at stake reveals an originality, confers a typical nature and encourages recognition for the products or services originating from this space, and therefore for the people who live there. The terroirs are living and innovative spaces that cannot be equated with tradition alone.” [1]

In terms of winemaking, the terroir is derived from the climate, the nature of the soil, the orientation of the plots, which will determine the choice of grape varieties and how the winegrowers will work the vines, all determining the quality and typical nature of a wine.

[1] Definition proposed by a collective working group INRA – INAO – UNESCO in 2005

Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) (IGP in French)

This denotes a product whose quality, reputation or other characteristics are related to a geographical origin, in which at least its production or processing takes place. The PGI applies to the agriculture, food and wine sectors. For wine, all operations from the grape harvest to the end of the winemaking process are carried out in the geographical area under consideration. The PGI therefore guarantees all the grapes come from the specific geographical area.

The PGI may be based on the reputation of the product, in the sense of strong public recognition at a given moment, which must be associated with specific expertise or quality attributable to the geographical origin.

The PGI provides protection at the national level as well as internationally.