Appellation d'origine contrôlée in the context of "Vin de pays"

French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In the 17th and 18th centuries, chefs François Pierre La Varenne and Marie-Antoine Carême spearheaded movements that shifted French cooking away from its foreign influences and developed France's own indigenous style.

Cheese and wine are a major part of the cuisine. They play different roles regionally and nationally, with many variations and appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) (regulated appellation) laws.

The following four classifications of wine constitute the Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine:

• Denominazione di origine (DO, rarely used; Italian: [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine]; 'designation of origin');
• Indicazione geografica tipica (IGT; Italian: [indikatˈtsjoːne dʒeoˈɡraːfika ˈtiːpika]; 'indication of geographical typicality');
• Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC; Italian: [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine kontrolˈlaːta]; 'controlled designation of origin'); and
• Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG; Italian: [denominatˈtsjoːne di oˈriːdʒine kontrolˈlaːta e ɡɡaranˈtiːta]; 'controlled and guaranteed designation of origin').

The system was introduced in 1963 shortly after the Treaty of Rome established Italy as a founding member of the European Economic Community, and was modelled on the extant French appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) laws. It was overhauled in 1992 to match new European Union law on protected designation of origin, introducing the more general denominazione di origine protetta (DOP) designation for foods and agricultural products, including wines. Further EU reforms to harmonise agricultural policy in 2008 meant that designations used in member states, and thus Italian designations, were registered with the EU by the end of 2011, with subsequent new denominations or elevations approved by the EU.

French wine is produced throughout all of France in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world. French wine traces its history to the 6th century BCE, with many of France's regions dating their wine-making history to Roman times. The wines produced range from expensive wines sold internationally to modest wines usually only seen within France such as the Margnat wines of the post-war period.

Two concepts central to the better French wines are the notion of terroir, which links the style of the wines to the locations where the grapes are grown and the wine is made, and the Protected designation of origin (Appellation d'Origine Protégée, AOP) system, named Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) until 2012. Appellation rules closely define which grape varieties and winemaking practices are approved for classification in each of France's several hundred geographically defined appellations, which can cover regions, villages or vineyards.France is the source of many grape varieties (such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Sauvignon blanc, Syrah) that are now planted throughout the world, as well as wine-making practices and styles of wine that have been adopted in other producing countries. Although some producers have benefited in recent years from rising prices and increased demand for prestige wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux, competition from New World wines has contributed to a decline in the domestic and international consumption of French wine to 40 liters per capita.

Bordeaux wine (Occitan: vin de Bordèu; French: vin de Bordeaux) is produced in the Bordeaux region of southwest France, around the city of Bordeaux, on the Garonne River. To the north of the city, the Dordogne River joins the Garonne forming the broad estuary called the Gironde; the Gironde department, with a total vineyard area of 110,800 hectares, is the second largest wine-growing area in France behind the Languedoc-Rousillon.

Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of wine, ranging from large quantities of daily table wine to some of the world's most expensive and prestigious wines. The vast majority of wine produced in Bordeaux is red (sometimes called "claret" in Britain), with sweet white wines (most notably Sauternes), dry whites, and (in much smaller quantities) rosé and sparkling wines (Crémant de Bordeaux) collectively making up the remainder. Bordeaux wine is made by more than 5,660 producers or châteaux. There are 65 appellations of Bordeaux wine.