Quality & Terroir

Reunion Island Rum makes up part of the cultural institutions of this Indian Ocean island’s creole cultural history. Reunion’s distillery use either molasses (for the production of traditional or industrial rum) or sugar cane juice (for rhum agricole, a special type of rum that is considered higher quality and is strongly associated with former French […]

Numerous tourist routes crisscross the vineyards of France. Between the 140,000 wineries and about 30 different museums, these paths allow for wine tastings, to meet the wine producers, and also to appreciate the local landscapes and architectures: It is made-in-France wine tourism. Aromas, scents, and colors: The wine route is above all a multi-sensory experience. […]

The regional economic observatory of signs of quality and origin of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, which brings together several partner organizations of the INAO, the French National Institute of Origin and Quality, published a study June 11 on the added value that can be brought by choosing to produce organic products or products under geographic indications for the […]

The only clementine produced in France, Corsican clementines are tiny, brightly colored fruits that come in a fiery shade of orange that is impossible to replicate elsewhere. They are delicately acidic, with a thin skin and seedless, juicy flesh, and are always sold with their long thin green leaves still attached, which serve as a […]

Guadeloupe, A French département in the Caribbean, is known not only for its black sand beaches and warm waters, but also for rum! Rhum de Guadeloupe is a cultural institution of the Creole culture of this Caribbean island that goes back deep in the island’s history, to the first sugar cane plantations. Guadeloupe produces two […]

The Granville Bay Whelk, which is from the Cotentin area of Normandy, was registered as a protected geographic indication (PGI) by the European Commission earlier this year, becoming the first new French agricultural product registered in 2019. The whelk is a gastropod mollusk fished in the Granville Bay, to the west of the Cotentin Peninsula […]

The uncontested queen of the table olives, the Black Olive of Nyons was the first French olive to obtain protected designation of origin (PDO) status in 1997, making it for several years the only variety of olive in France or Europe to benefit from this status. Twenty years later, this olive continues to preserve and […]

The uncontested queen of the table olives, the Black Olive of Nyons was the first French olive to obtain protected designation of origin (PDO) status in 1997, making it for several years the only variety of olive in France or Europe to benefit from this status. Twenty years later, this olive continues to preserve and […]

The artichoke is an old crop in the Roussillon area of southern France, where it has been cultivated since at least the 17th century. In around 1830, the production of this crop booms. Starting in the beginning of the 20th century, it is shipped all across France and to Germany and England thanks to the […]

The French agency in charge of managing geographic indications has just released its report highlighting the organization’s activity for 2017. The French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) is a public agency of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, that for more than 80 years has been in charge of managing and protecting […]