Wine · Terminology

Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP)

France's PGI tier — big regional areas, wide grape choice, and the successor to Vin de Pays.

Indication Géographique Protégée — IGP — is France's PGI tier, introduced in 2009 to replace Vin de Pays. It sits below AOC/AOP and above Vin de France.

The appeal is flexibility. IGP areas are large, the permitted grape list is broad — including international varieties an AOC would refuse — yields are more generous, and varietal labelling is allowed, which most French AOCs still resist.

In practice

  • Around 75 IGPs, from vast regional zones to small departmental ones.
  • At least 85% of the grapes must come from the named area.
  • Grape variety and vintage may both appear on the label, subject to the same 85% rule.
  • Wines are analysed and tasted, but against far looser criteria than AOC.

Where you'll meet it

  • Pays d'Oc IGP, covering the whole Languedoc-Roussillon and producing more varietal wine than any other French appellation — see southern France.
  • IGP Côtes de Gascogne, IGP Val de Loire, IGP Méditerranée.
  • Ambitious producers in AOC regions who want to work outside the rules — an unpermitted variety, or a declassified parcel.

The French pyramid

Tier EU category Grapes from area Notes
AOC / AOP PDO 100% Strict on variety, yield, method
IGP PGI 85% Wide variety list, varietal labelling
Vin de France Wine France only No region; vintage and variety allowed since 2009

What IGP changed

The move from Vin de Pays to IGP was more than a rename. It brought French labelling into line with the rest of the EU, made the category legible to export markets, and — crucially — encouraged producers to treat it as a positive choice rather than a demotion.

The Languedoc is the proof. Pays d'Oc built an international varietal business that AOC rules would have made impossible, and it did so without pretending to be Burgundy.

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