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''Vin de pays'' (, "country wine") was a French
wine classification The classification of wine is based on various criteria including place of origin or appellation, vinification method and style, sweetness and vintage,J. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 752 & 753 Oxford University ...
that was above the '' vin de table'' classification, but below the ''
appellation d'origine contrôlée An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical bo ...
'' (AOC) classification and below the former ''
vin délimité de qualité supérieure Vin délimité de qualité supérieure ("delimited wine of superior quality"), usually abbreviated as VDQS, was the second highest category of French wine, below '' appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) in rank, but above ''vin de pays'' (coun ...
'' classification. The ''vin de pays'' classification was replaced by the EU indication '' Indication Géographique Protégée'' in 2009. Legislation on the ''Vin de pays'' terminology was created in 1973 and passed in 1979,winepros.com.au. allowing producers to distinguish wines that were made using grape varieties or procedures other than those required by the AOC rules, without having to use the simple and commercially non-viable table wine classification. Unlike table wines, which are only indicated as being from France, ''Vin de pays'' carries a geographic designation of origin, the producers have to submit the wine for analysis and tasting, and the wines have to be made from certain
varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
or blends. Regulations regarding varieties and labelling practices were typically more lenient than the regulations for AOC wines.


Taxonomy

There were three tiers of Vin de Pays: ''regional, departmental'' and ''local''. There were seven regional Vins de Pays, which cover large areas of France. The most voluminous contributor to this category of wines was
Vin de Pays d'Oc Languedoc-Roussillon wine, including the ''vin de pays'' labeled ''Vin de Pays d'Oc'', is produced in southern France. While "Languedoc" can refer to a specific historic region of France and Northern Catalonia, usage since the 20th century (espe ...
, from the
Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; oc, Lengadòc-Rosselhon ; ca, Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and b ...
area in Mediterranean France. The second largest volume of Vin de Pays wines was produced as Vin de Pays de la Loire, a designation that applies to wines from the whole Loire Valley and Chablis. The others were: (south-west), Vin de Pays de Méditerranée (south-east, Provence and Corsica) and
Vin de Pays des Comtés Rhodaniens Vin or VIN may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Vîn TV, a Kurdish language satellite television channel founded in 2007 * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', an American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a statio ...
(Rhone valley). Vin de Pays Terres du Midi, approved in mid-2018 for certain blended wines produced in Languedoc and Roussillon. Two further regional Vin de Pays designations, Vin de Pays de l'Atlantique (Bordeaux and Charentes (Cognac)) and Vin de Pays Vignobles de France (all of wine-making France) were approved by French authorities in 2007, but (together with Vin de Pays de Gaules for the Beaujolais region) remain disputed and as of July 2009, they remained unpublished in the
Official Journal of the European Union An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...
due to actions taken by other French wine producers. The Vin de Pays Vignobles de France has now been replaced by a table wine designation Vin de France, launched in August 2009. Each regional Vin de Pays was divided into several departmental Vins de Pays, of which there were about 50. The names were derived from the French
departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in question and the limits exactly the same as the department's borders. For example, Vin de Pays du Gard was one of the Vins de Pays produced within Vins de Pays d'Oc using grapes from the
Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;Vin de Pays de Charente-maritime was produced in the
Cognac Cognac ( , also , ) is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. Cognac production falls under French appella ...
area. Approximately one third of the French departments don't produce ''Vin de Pays'', some like Côte d'Or in Burgundy and Gironde in Bordeaux because their wine production was entirely in the higher AOC tier, and others because their climate was not suited to wine production at all, like the Bretagne, Normandy and Nord-Pas de Calais regions. The local, or zone-defined Vins de pays were numerous, and may have taken their name from some historical or geographical phenomenon, such as Vin de Pays des Marches de Bretagne or Vin de Pays des Coteaux de l'Ardeche, or even a more locally specific variant. The boundaries of a zone may reflect a consistent terroir, rather than an administrative convenience, and could potentially in the long run achieve the status of an AOC.morethanorganic.co
AOC Classifications
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Production rules

The conditions to respect to be allowed to use the classification Vin de pays were the following: * The yield must be less than 90 hectoliters per
hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre i ...
for white wines, and less than 85 hl for red and rosé wines. * Only wine producers with a total yield of less than 100 hl/ha can qualify. * The minimum alcoholic strength depends on the region and was 10% in
Le Midi Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...
, 9.5% in South-west France area and the Centre East area, and 9% for the Loire Valley and the East area. * The allowed amounts of
sulfur dioxide Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic a ...
allowed in the wines were 125 mg/L for red wines and 150 mg/L for white and rosé wines. For wines with sugar content of at least 5 g/L, the quantity of sulfur dioxide was slightly higher: 150 mg/L for red wines and 175 mg/L for white and rosé wines. * The acidity in terms of pH values was also regulated, with some Vin de Pays areas having stricter rules than others. * The wines were required to be kept and produced separately from other wines (e.g. production for
table wine Table wine (rarely abbreviated TW) is a wine term with two different meanings: a style of wine and a quality level within wine classification. In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortifi ...
s) and were subject to quality monitoring by an official regional committee.


Economic effects

In terms of volume, Vins de Pays d'Oc and Vin de Pays du Val de Loire (previously known as Vins de Pays du Jardin de France) were responsible for the majority of French exports. Originally, Vin de Pays designation was commonly viewed as inferior to an AOC Appellation, often being ascribed to thin and simple wines. However, since the late 1980s, an increase in demand for varietal wines has led some French producers and cooperatives to produce more Vin de Pays, especially Vin de Pays d'Oc, to make varietal wines with some form of designation, while turning away from the highly restrictive AOC classification which often requires very specific blends of grape varieties. This can be seen as a response to the increasing sales success of varietal New World wines from
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, the
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,
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and
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
. As well as varietal wines (such as
Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebanon ...
or
Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the ...
), Vin de Pays was used to produce non-traditional blends which do not meet the requirements of AOC or VDQS regulations. Some of these wines are considered much better, and command higher prices, than AOC or VDQS wines from the same region, or even the same winemakers.


See also

*
Indicazione Geografica Tipica ''Indicazione geografica tipica'' () is the third of four classifications of wine recognized by the government of Italy. Created to recognize the unusually high quality of the class of wines known as Super Tuscans, IGT wines are labeled with th ...
of Italy * Vino de la Tierra of Spain * Denominação de Origem Controlada of Portugal *
German wine classification The German wine classification system puts a strong emphasis on standardization and factual completeness, and was first implemented by the German Wine Law of 1971. Nearly all of Germany's vineyards are delineated and registered as one of approxi ...
Landwein of Germany


References

{{Reflist French wine Wine classification