AOC wines are 90 years old!

Celebrate 90 years of Burgundy’s AOCs with Along Burgundy.

Discover private wine tours, vineyard visits, and exclusive tastings across Burgundy’s most historic appellations.

This is the 90th anniversary of France's first AOC wine appellations, created in 1936 to provide the national wine industry with a tool for protecting and promoting its terroirs.

"Pommard 1920"

 ‘The appellation d'origine is a common good, which in our appellation syndicates unites large, medium and small owners; together, they form what I might call rural democracy of quality,’ wrote Joseph Capus in 1947.

Following the 90th anniversary of the bill of 12 March 1935 (adopted on 30 July of the same year) laying the foundations for modern wine appellations and the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO), we now celebrate the anniversary of the 1936 decrees creating the first AOC wines. In total, 76 wine appellations were recognised in France 90 years ago. As reported by the INAO, "these AOCs reflect the desire to preserve local expertise and protect against competition and fraud. They herald the gradual creation of a national appellation system. "

Once the ‘charter of wines with controlled designation of origin’ was created in 1935, it was necessary, as early as 1936, to ‘define the conditions for the production of wines and spirits with a controlled designation of origin’ before turning to the ‘definition of the conditions for the production of regulated spirits, the determination of superior quality wines, the strengthening of controls with the vine variety register, and the authorisation of new plantations’. development of a ‘foreign service to monitor foreign misuse of our appellation names’, etc.

The 22 AOCs celebrating their 90th anniversary in Burgundy in 2026:

- Beaune - Bonnes-Mares - Chambolle-Musigny - Clos de la Roche - Clos Saint-Denis

- Fixin - Gevrey-Chambertin - Grands Echezeaux - La Grande Rue - La Romanée - La Tâche

- Mercurey - Montagny - Morey-Saint-Denis - Musigny - Pommard - Pouilly-Fuissé

- Richebourg - Romanée-Conti - Romanée-Saint-Vivant - Vosne-Romanée – Vougeot

Along Burgundy – Tailor-made wine experiences in the heart of Burgundy.