Wine has one of the most precise and extensive sy

Wine has one of the most precise and extensive systems of identification and production control of any food product. Although the great majority of the world's wine is ordinary table wine of no special distinction, most wines are labeled at least by region of production, type of grape or type of wine, and year of production. As the quality of wine increases the specifics of identification are more rigorous and, often, controlled by law. Systems by which wine production and identification is regulated in various countries are, in large part, based on the system developed in France, which is known generally as the appellation d'origine c(ntrolTe (AOC) or simply appellation c(ntrolTe (AC). The French system identifies the particular region in which a wine is made, such as Bordeaux, and subdivides the region into increasingly specific locales for which even types of grapes, levels of annual production, and growing and vinification techniques may be specified by law. Since the French system is the oldest and the most intensively specialized, an overview of wine production in a single French region demonstrates the working of the AC system. An outline of wine production is, therefore, followed by a discussion of the wines of the Rh(ne Valley.

There are many kinds of grapes in the genus Vitis. But only the Vitis vinifera and, more rarely, the Vitis labrusca are important in wine production. Vitis Vinifera includes the European wine grapes while labrusca is the hardy nativ

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umsy wines" (Finigan 13-14). The finest distinctions must be made regarding the ripeness of the grapes at the time they are harvested, the selection of grapes to be used by those winemakers who are not also the growers, and in the complicated process of vinification. The basic process of making wine involves the conversion of the sugar in grapes into alcohol by means of yeasts. But the control of the process for the best wines is very demanding. Selection of yeasts, strict control of chaptalization (the adding of sugar to increase alcohol production), monitoring of temperature, control of color and flavor extraction in red wines (for which the skins are left in the fermentation process), and the control of various process for special types of wine are all areas in which the experience and skills of the winemakers have a substantial effect. In addition, the aging of wines--which ranges from weeks to years--and the bottling and cellaring processes must be carefully managed. Subtle differences in taste are produced, for example, by the size of aging barrels, which are generally made of oak, since "the greater the ratio of wooden surface to the volume of the wine," the greater the influence of the wood which adds flavor compone

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