The appellation d'origine contrôlée is a French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut national des appellations d'origine, now called Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO). It is based on the concept of terroir and a form of geographic protectionism.

The origins of AOC date to the year 1411, when Roquefort was regulated by a parliamentary decree. The first French law on viticultural designations of origin dates to August 1, 1905, whereas the first modern law was set on May 6, 1919, when the Law for the Protection of the Place of Origin was passed, specifying the region and commune in which a given product must be manufactured, and has been revised on many occasions since then.[citation needed] On July 30, 1935, the Comité National des appellations d'origine (CNAO), with representatives of the government and the major winegrowers, was created to manage the administration of the process for wines at the initiative of deputy Joseph Capus. In the Rhône wine region Baron Pierre Le Roy Boiseaumarié, a trained lawyer and winegrower from Château Neuf-du-Pape, successfully obtained legal recognition of the "Côtes du Rhône" appellation of origin in 1936.[citation needed] After World War II the committee became the public-private Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO).The AOC seal was created and mandated by French laws in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. On July 2, 1990, the scope of work of the INAO was extended beyond wines to cover other agricultural products .[citation needed]

AOCs vary dramatically in size. Some cover vast expanses with a variety of climatic and soil characteristics, while others are small and highly uniform. For example, the Côtes du Rhône AOC "covers some 400 square kilometres (150 sq mi), but within its area lies one of the smallest AOCs, Château-Grillet, which occupies less than 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of land."