Page126 PoLAR:Vol.37,No.1 Erica A. Farmer Smithsonian Institution Codifying Consensus and Constructing Boundaries: Setting the Limits of Appellation d’origine controlˆ ee´ Protection in Bordeaux, France Legal geographical indication (GI) regimes are increasingly considered a promising tool to protect cultural heritage from outside appropriation. Yet such regimes have origins in a much more specific context: the structures and practices of wine-making in the elite wine regions of France. This article examines the relationships between different types of communities and structures involved in boundary-making under the prototypical GI system, appellation d’origine controlˆ ee´ (AOC), in its place of origin, Bordeaux. Here, legal boundaries are simultaneously reinforced, created, and defined by the values and priorities of the society that created them. In this article I consider geographical indications in Bordeaux not only as communal rights but as communal emanations, both to highlight the idiosyncrasies of AOC as a legal system and some of the problems and possibilities status suggests for the future of intellectual property rights. [appellation d’origine controlˆ ee´ , boundaries, communal rights, wine, intellectual property, geographical indications, traditional knowledge] The term geographical indication1 (GI) is an umbrella term for a complex system that brings place-linked products into broader intellectual property frameworks. Although such regimes have growing significance globally, the impetus for this type of legal protection began in France, under the appellation d’origine controlˆ ee´ 2 (AOC) system, which was first codified in 19191.GiventhehistoryoftheAOClegislation,the resultant legal system is quite embedded in its sociocultural context, particularly in the role of communal factors and the importance of social values as expressed through practice. The importance of these connections to social context is manifested in factors such as the localized specificity of the legal balancing test of “local, loyal and constant usages” and the level of sociocultural detail necessary for the creation of the cahier des charges, aformalizedlegaldocumentwhichliststhevariousattributes required to define the products3 protected under the law. Due to the sui generis nature of AOC protection in Bordeaux, the preexisting system of regulating wine production works independently as well as alongside the legal regime set up for such protection. As AOC-style systems move further from their origins, however, that is less completely the case, a fact that carries implications for the diffusion of systems based on the French model outside France,4 and Europe, to new products and contexts. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Vol. 37, Number 1, pps. 126–144. ISSN C 1081-6976, electronic ISSN 1555-2934. ⃝ 2014 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/plar.12054. May 2014 Page 127 Bordeaux’s AOC system provides an important case study of such regimes, as the primary historical and contemporary model for GI systems. This article looks to the relationship between sociocultural structures and actors in Bordeaux’s AOC law through an analysis of the role of boundaries and boundary setting within the system, particularly as the law seeks to represent standards of shared practice and consensus around the social meaning of wines produced in the region. Legal boundaries and objectives can often be simplistically portrayed as imposed upon or external to social ones, but in the case of AOC in Bordeaux, I would argue that it is more fruitful to look at the legal system and social system as operating alongside each other, functioning at different scales as well as interacting in complex ways. The legal system functions to reinforce social boundaries through its imprimatur, while also acting as other and extraneous to social regulation at the same time. The navigation of actors between legal and social registers brings into question the politics and interactions that constitute the process of setting standards and building consensus around these important boundaries in both social and legal contexts. This article begins with a history of some of the sociocultural and legal context sur- rounding the creation of the 1919 AOC legislation, before continuing to a discussion of some of the ways that social and legal boundaries are built both under the law and alongside it. Next, I turn to a longer ethnographic case study based upon a recent controversy over membership in AOC Margaux in order to bring out some of the dual legal and sociocultural aspects of the AOC system in practice. Through this analysis I highlight the fact that AOCs in Bordeaux are created not only as communal rights, but also as communal emanations, articulating around ideas of belonging and the shared (though contested) social construction of meaning in protected wines. I conclude with a discussion of some of the implications that arise from the types of conflicts and concerns raised in my cases, and point to some practical considerations that may complicate the spread of AOC-inspired GI regimes around the world. Geography and the Basics of the AOC System The French AOC regulations are based around a number of boundary-setting activi- ties, both in regard to product definitions and in a geographical sense. Practically, the law requires the creation of a dossier called the cahier des charges,whichrequires 1) a delimitation of the region of production, 2) the creation of a map of the area linked to the appellation, and 3) an itemized list of production factors, including permitted grape varieties, sugar and alcohol content, yield, and any relevant special techniques to be used in production. In combination, these three elements set out the meanings of place and practice for the particular AOC. Although the creation of geographical boundaries and product definitions under the law operate in tandem, the present article will focus on the former. Geographically, Bordeaux is located in southwestern France, in the region of Aquitaine, department of Gironde. It is home to a population of approximately 230,000 people, and serves as the seat of a broader area that encompasses a number of wine regions, which represent a staggering total of 60 different wine-related AOCs, Page 128 PoLAR:Vol.37,No.1 anumberonlyeclipsedinBurgundy.5 The region centers around the Gironde estuary, abodyofwaterthatisalsothemajorportforwineexportforthearea.Thereare two primary styles of red wine produced in the region, differentiated both by their locations of origin as well as their predominant grape varietals. The wines of the left bank (of the Gironde) are marked by a predominance of cabernet sauvignon in their blends,5 having a “bigger,” more tannic taste, where those of the right bank high- light the merlot grape and its fruitier flavor. Both areas are marked by high prestige appellations, notably AOCs Margaux, Pauillac, and St. Julien on the left bank, and AOCs St. Emilion´ and Pomerol on the right. The Sauternes region, known for its sweet white wines, is located to the south of the city. At a basic level, AOC status is based on linking together a location, a history of practice, and a reputation around wine. This is legally represented through the usages locaux, loyaux, et constants (local, loyal, and constants) test, which highlights that linkage between product and place, and it is by proving each of these individual elements that the right to an AOC is established (Farmer 2011). Each of the individual factors that comprise the test combine to represent the value protected by legal status. Producers applying to belong to or create an AOC must thus be able to align wines which are reputationally recognizable in geograph- ically specific places with values and community perceptions of long standing within their local and neighboring communities. Doing so means that community perceptions shape AOCs in a fundamental way, by recognizing and defining what they are, while also policing their boundaries through social mechanisms and local politics. The first article of the 1919 AOC law states that in the event of the misuse of an appellation with “usages locaux, loyaux, et constants”agroupofproducerscanbring aclaimtostoptheinappropriateusageoftheAOC.Theprimaryconcernofthelaw is to stop misuse, and even today the principle response to the perceived harm of violation is the complete removal of the offending product from the market. The law states that the case is brought to a civil tribunal in the region where the infringement occurs. This requirement is meant to further capture a sense of the influence of the reputation of the wine by taking advantage of local perceptions of product status and definitions before expanding to inquire if that reputation is perceived similarly in surrounding communities and elsewhere. One section of the law that figures prominently in early legal cases in the Bordeaux region is Article 7, which creates the rule that decisions about AOC status must apply to all similarly situated parties. This means that a single producer cannot argue against a neighbor making a product under the AOC, provided that the other requirements for status are met. It is a shared right for the community, not something an individual can have total control over. This principle is firmly reinforced by a series of early cases6 that allowed extensions of AOC designations to spread to neighboring communities because of individual producers who claimed historical links to the