The world of Appellation
Its been more than a year now since I was first introduced to the world Appellation. Having raised and worked in India, it was a whole new world to me, especially in the world of wine & spirits. So far the only AOC I was aware of was about the Scotch Whiskey Association and all the loopholes that were innovated against it.
Initially, it was very frustrating to understand the rule and regulations not because they had so many and everyone was following it but, every time there was a new idea for product innovation it was shot down by the AOC rule and regulations. Especially when non-AOC products across the world were doing so much more in terms of giving consumers an abundance of variety to choose from.
Having said that this frustration slowly converted into whole new respect when I moved to Cognac. Here I was introduced to AOC not only for Wine and Cognacs but products ranging from Cheese, Caviars, Pineau de Charente, Foie gras, Armagnac and the list just goes on. And this made me enter the world of the appellation to understand the psyche behind it.
The laws laid down by the authorities were not actually restricting product innovation instead it made sure the quality of products is not being compromised. It works on one simple philosophy of "Creating good quality products to consume". This leads to a great level of satisfaction for manufacturers of creating high standard world-class products and at the same time gives the consumers satisfaction of consuming such great products. It is actually like the two sides of the same coin.
This leads to a big question, can we have an AOC as powerfull as here for developing markets. Can we create controlled products especially in the Spirits category in Asian markets to start with? When the volumes are 10 times the size of European markets, is it possible to have such strict AOC for these markets?
Time will answer this but to me, it looks like it is the best next step to have to manufacture world-class quality products in new developing markets.
If you have reached so far reading this, would love to know what you think?