So how does a wine region get recognised? Here is an extract from this news item: Birth of a French wine terroir.
Pic St. Loup may have risen toward the apex of France's wine hierarchy, but until it becomes an officially recognised wine region -- an Appellation d'Origine Controle, or AOC -- Peyrus will not feel fulfilled.
"After 20 years of work, we are ready to cross the threshold. When you grow up, you want to strike out on your own," he said during a recent visit of his domain, Clos Marie.
"The appellation deserves it," he added, speaking for the 30-odd vintners who first petitioned France's supreme wine authority -- INAO, the Institut National de l'Origine et de la Qualite -- for AOC status in 2002.
Few disagree. Influential wine maven Robert Parker calls Pic St. Loup, north of Montpellier, one of southern France's "most exciting regions for the 21st century." French critics are no less enthusiastic.
Its best red wines, anchored in Grenache and Syrah grapes, rival Rhone Valley bottles, made with the same varietals, costing two or three times as much.
But gaining a berth in the pantheon of French wines -- even for an apparent shoo-in like Pic St. Loup -- can be a frustrating and complex ordeal, as the region's long-suffering winegrowers have discovered.
"In the best of scenarios, it takes about five years," explained Gilles Flutet, an INAO official who oversees requests for AOC status.
"In some cases it can take 25, as happened for Saint Pourcain," a tiny appellation in the Loire Valley that was finally anointed in May 2009.
So what is an AOC and why is it so sought after?
Even incurious wine drinkers have at least heard of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Chablis or Champagne, but just how these mythical regions -- which number more than 400 -- come into being is little known.
The system was created in the mid-1930s mainly to protect marquee vineyards in Burgundy and Bordeaux from counterfeiters and fraud.
It also began to codify the French notion of "terroir", which holds that a unique ensemble of environmental conditions gives each wine region a signature taste. The same pinot noir grapes, for example, will yield different aromas in the Loire Valley's Sancerre compared to Burgundy's Cote d'Or.
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