What are geographical and parcel areas?
The geographical area is the materialization of the production area of products recognized as AOP or in IGP. It is based on lists of administrative entities (départements, cantons, communes, cadastral sections, parcels) or natural geographical boundaries. Depending on the product and/or its link to the terroir, is defined:
- Either a geographical area on its own
- Or a geographical area associated with a delimitation of the production area of the raw material (the case of most wine appellations), called a "delimited parcel area".
Parcellar area represents the delimitation of a PDO or PGI based on the administrative boundaries of the land registry (the parcels), with a sufficiently fine mesh to take into account very localized variations in the elements of the physical environment. Parcel delimitation is used primarily for wine PDOs. It corresponds to the zoning of an appellation's production potential. This zoning can cover plots planted with vines as well as non-agricultural plots that meet the technical criteria (soil, exposure, etc.) that characterize a vineyard. It is included in the geographical area that constitutes the production area of the product.
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The definition of the geographical area makes it possible to assess the extent to which its characteristics (natural and human factors) influence the final product. Delimitation is therefore based on elements that are the translation of the link of the product under SIQO to its geographical origin.
For PGIs and spirituous GIs, the link is generally based on a salient element of the characteristics of the geographical area. This is referred to as the "territory link". For PDOs, the link is based on a system of more complex interactions between the natural environment and human factors. This is referred to as terroir.
The notion of terroir
Terroir is one of the historical foundations of PDOs. A terroir is a delimited geographical area in which a human community has built up, over the course of its history, a collective knowledge of production, based on a system of interactions between a physical and biological environment, and a set of human factors. The socio-technical itineraries thus brought into play reveal an originality, confer a typicality and lead to a reputation, for a good originating from this geographical area.
(Source : INRAe - INAO)