Careful with your AVAs

[tomstevenson]

The French did not institute regulations in the late-19th century; it was still the period of formation of syndicats. The AOC system was legally instituted between 22 July 1927 and 30 July 1935, and the earliest regulations they can be traced back to are the laws August 1905 and May 1919, although these were essentially concerned with establishing legal definitions, rather than setting up appellations per se. Champagne was in fact one of the first regions to enshrine its appellation in law, as early as August 1908, although it paid the price of being one of the pioneers when this delimitation led to riots and civil unrest. They're still haggling about the geographical borders of Champagne to this day. The decline in Alsatian viticultural practices was not the result of Germanisation following the Franco-Prussian war, but down to the French in the period prior to this (see my book, page 8).