Glossary · Law and labelling
AOC
French. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Also written Appellation d’origine contrôlée. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The French national appellation system, administered by INAO, under which the cider, perry and Calvados appellations of Normandy and Brittany are defined. AOC names are also registered at European level as AOP or PDO.
- Subject
- Law and labelling
- Language
- French
- Also written
- Appellation d’origine contrôlée
In more detail
An AOC is defined by a cahier des charges, a detailed specification covering the delimited area, permitted cultivars, orchard density, yield, pressing, fermentation, minimum ageing and analytical limits. Compliance is verified by inspection, and the appellation may be refused to a batch that does not meet the specification.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Cidre Pays d’Auge
The controlled appellation cider of the Pays d’Auge in Calvados, made by keeving from bitter Norman fruit and bottle-conditioned to a low alcohol and a high residual sugar.
Region
Pays d’Auge
The Norman heartland of appellation cider and of pot-still Calvados: a small area of heavy clay, hedged pasture and dairy farms whose cider is defined by regulation as much as by tradition.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Law and labelling
PDO
A protected name under which every stage of production, processing and preparation must take place in the defined area, using raw materials from it. The strictest of the geographical schemes.
Law and labelling
Cahier des charges
The product specification behind a French appellation: the binding document that sets out the area, cultivars, cultivation, processing, composition and labelling rules a product must meet to use the name.
Cider
Calvados
The protected apple — and in the Domfrontais, partly pear — brandy of Normandy, distilled from cider under appellation rules that govern the orchard, the fermentation, the still and the minimum cask age.
Perry
Poiré Domfront
The protected appellation for perry from the Domfrontais in Normandy, requiring a high minimum proportion of local perry pear cultivars, keeving, and bottle carbonation without added gas.
Cider
Cidre bouché
French cider sold in a heavy bottle closed with a mushroom cork and wire cage, sparkling from fermentation continuing in the bottle. Literally "corked cider".
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO)
INAO · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
The Cidre Pays d’Auge cahier des charges was read in full on 2026-08-24, in the version homologated by arrêté of 17 January 2026 and published in the Journal officiel on 21 January. That qualification is not decoration. A revision adopted by the Comité national on 10 September 2025 is currently under the procédure nationale d’opposition, is clearly marked as not prejudging the final text, and specifies carbonation differently from the text in force — as grams of CO2 per litre rather than as a minimum pressure in bar. A summary citing the draft would have put a figure on the page that no producer is held to. CiderHQ records the operative text and says which one it is.
eAmbrosia — the EU geographical indications register
European Commission · designation authority · registered as competent for this subject
The single authoritative register of EU PDO, PGI and TSG names, carrying each product specification. Cider and perry designations across France, Spain and elsewhere resolve here.