Publication of an application for registration pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin

(2003/C 170/04)

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Articles 7 and 12d of the abovementioned Regulation. Any objection to this application must be submitted via the competent authority in a Member State, in a WTO member country or in a third country recognised in accordance with Article 12(3) within a time limit of six months from the date of this publication. The arguments for publication are set out below, in particular under 4.6, and are considered to justify the application within the meaning of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92.

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2081/92

APPLICATION FOR REGISTRATION: ARTICLE 5

PDO ( ) PGI (X)

National application No: IG/16/97

1. Responsible department in the Member State Name: Ministère de l'agriculture et de la pêche

Direction des politiques économique et internationale

Bureau des signes de qualité et de l'agriculture biologique

Address: 3, rue Barbet-de-Jouy - F-75349 Paris 07 SP

Tel. (33-1) 49 55 81 01, fax (33-1) 49 55 57 85

2. Applicant group 2.1. Name: Association de l'agneau de Pauillac

2.2. Address: Route de Labarthe - F-33190 Gironde Sur Dropt

2.3. Composition: Producer/Processor (X) Other ( )

3. Type of product: "Meat and edible meat offals" according to Annex II of the Treaty of Rome

4. Specification

(Summary of requirements under Article 4(2))

4.1. Name: Agneau de Pauillac

4.2. Description: Lamb aged no more than 75 days, unweaned, with a carcass weight of between 11 and 15 kg, conformation EURO, fat cover class 2, light-coloured meat, firm white fat. The lamb is from the wine-growing and tree-growing areas of the department.

4.3. Geographical area: Department of Gironde

4.4. Proof of origin: Background: The department of Gironde forms the heart of the Agneau de Pauillac production area: since the thirteenth century, sheep had been moving down from the Pyrenean mountainsides to graze in the pastures of Gironde. Young animals not kept for renewing the herd were sold on the spot and eaten at Easter celebrations. These lambs were slaughtered mainly in Pauillac, the transit port, arriving by train or being brought by locals who rounded them up. According to the "Guide des agneaux des bergers d'Aquitaine" (Guide to the lambs of Aquitaine shepherds), almost a thousand lambs were being brought to Pauillac each year by 1827.

Traceability: Official identification of the lambs from birth to slaughter, and from slaughter to consumer through marking with a food ink stamp.

4.5. Method of production: Agneau de Pauillac is born and raised, alongside the dam, on the same farm before being slaughtered within the geographical area. It is fed essentially on milk through suckling by the dam, with supplements of cereal concentrate and nitrogen. While the ewes go out to graze during the day, the lambs are kept in the sheepfold. The reproduction herd is made up of hardy breeds of ewes (Lacaune meat, Tarasconnaise, Blanche du Massif Central) crossed with butcher-quality rams (Bérichon du Cher, Charolais, Suffolk, Rouge de l'Ouest). Only lambs meeting the specifications in point 4.2 may be marketed under the name Agneau de Pauillac.

4.6. Link: A special type of lamb linked to a management system: The pastoral tradition in the department of Gironde has contributed over the years to the development of a special type of lamb, a product of wintering constraints: at the same time as transhumance sheep moved from the Pyrenees to overwinter in the Entre-Deux-Mers area, the shepherds from the Médoc marshes left the flooded wetlands every autumn for the drained areas along the Gironde coast, which are now occupied by vineyards.

As the areas planted with vines were extended and demand for manure increased, the herds from the Pyrenees and the Médoc marshes "colonised" the wine-growing estates, where grazing rights were granted in return for only a gift of one or two lambs and the entire yield of manure: all these shepherds experienced the same constraints resulting from grazing in cultivated areas of a particularly fragile nature and subsequently adopted the same husbandry method, which therefore resulted in a standard product, namely a lamb raised in a sheepfold (or pen) and suckled by the dam. Gourmets came to appreciate their milk-gorged flesh.

With the afforestation of the Médoc marshes, the advent of transport and the dying-out of the practice of grazing in vineyards, the sheep-breeders of the Gironde have nowadays settled in one place, while continuing to produce the same type of light, highly-prized lambs.

Reputation: Pauillac lamb is a product with a reputation of long standing, as evidenced by various documents (menu of the dinner arranged by President Loubet for the British King on 2 May 1903), Larousse Gastronomique of 1938 describing Agneau de Pauillac as "the most perfect" suckling lamb.

This lamb, which is served at the tables of the most renowned people, the product of a secular tradition perpetuated by the breeders' know-how, is nowadays recognised and appreciated as a type of lamb with a very different taste and flavour from traditional heavy lamb and milk-fed lamb from dairy farms.

4.7. Inspection body: Name: QUALISUD

Address: Lasserre AGROPOLE - F-47310 Estillac

4.8. Labelling: - Agneau né et élevé en Gironde,

- Agneau élevé sous la mère et nourri essentiellement au lait de la mère,

- Agneau non sevré, âgé de 75 jours maximum, d'un poids de carcasse compris entre 11 et 15 kg

4.9. National requirements: -

EC No: FR/00178/00.12.21.

Date of receipt of the full application: 16 May 2003.