French wine bottle labels can be confusing. Here’s how to navigate them

Q. Why do French wines have so many different labels?

A. French wine labels can be confusing, but as one of the largest wine producers in the world, France has a lot of people making wine. Bordeaux, one of the largest wine regions, has almost 6,000 châteaux producing about 9,000 wines, each with a different label.

The French have a system known as appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC), which guarantees that a wine comes from a defined geographical area. It should be made using traditional grapes in a specific time-honoured fashion. It should also be a guarantee of quality.

It is not just wine that has an AOC. Cheeses, butter, beef, sausages, lentils, honey and a huge range of other foods can carry the appellation contrôlée label. It’s not just France either. Spain, Italy, Germany, and other countries have a similar system. The Italian wine equivalent to AOC is Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) and Spain has Denominación de Origen (DO). The European Union has a system protecting designation of origin called PDO or PGI. We have some of our own protected foods here in Ireland now, such as the Waterford blaa.

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The system is designed to protect traditional styles of wine. It is also a useful marketing tool; nobody could be expected to remember all 6,000 producers in Bordeaux, but you might remember the name Bordeaux and buy one of the wines.

The AOC is supposed to be a guarantee of quality, with each wine tasted to make sure it meets a standard of quality. However, the tasters do not always taste the finished wine, and they are often locals who may well be friends with many of the producers. There are plenty of very average AOC wines.

More than 300 French wines can use the AOC label. Below that are two further categories, Vin de Pays and Vin de France, theoretically inferior but often very good value.