René Renou, President of the Institut National des Appellations d'Orgine (INAO), and one of the most influential men in French winemaking, died on June 18 in Seoul , where he was attending a conference on the future of French wines in South Korea. He was 54 and was reported to be ill for the past one year.

Renou, writes Jane Anson of Decanter.com, goes down as one of the great reforming characters in the French wine industry and was overseeing one of the most turbulent chapters in INAO's history.

He was in the middle of effecting deep-reaching changes, first attempted two years ago, and which had just been introduced early this month. Recognising that the sheer number of Appellation d'Origine Controllées (AOCs) had become confusing for the consumer, he was attempting to divide the offer in two - a top category to remain as AOC for wines of excellence, and a second to be known as Appellation Controllée (AC) with more relaxed rules of production.

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