Definition: Agréage

In France, an official examination that determines whether a wine has the qualities required to benefit from its appellation. The examination involves analysis and tasting. An operation whereby the broker approves the wines submitted to him by a seller and verifies that the goods comply with the sample taken at the time of purchase.

If the parties to the sales contract can expressly or tacitly waive the tasting requirement in order to consider the sale complete, this waiver must be demonstrated.

The condition of approval in the sale of wine

According to the provisions of Article 1587 of the Civil Code with regard to wine, there is no sale until the buyer has tasted and approved it.

Approval is the buyer's discretionary assessment of the taste qualities of a particular wine.

This legislative provision suggests that the approval of wine is a substantial and mandatory condition for the perfection of a wine sales contract.

However, this is not the case, and case law has long held that this is a supplementary rule to the will of the parties.

If this rule is only supplementary, it means that the parties may decide to waive the condition of approval and consider the sale of the wine to be complete as soon as agreement has been reached on the volumes and price.

However, although the parties to the sales contract may expressly or tacitly waive the tasting requirement in order to consider the sale complete, this waiver must be demonstrated either in writing or by conduct that leaves no doubt as to this refusal.

Indeed, if the purchaser does not wish to purchase the wine on the grounds that there has been no prior tasting, they must still demonstrate that they had not waived this prior tasting!

Indeed, waiver of approval cannot result solely from the silence of the parties; this has been the ruling of the Court of Cassation for several decades.

It is up to the courts to assess, based on the agreements and circumstances of the case, whether or not there has been a derogation from the tasting requirement.

If there is sufficient evidence to show that the purchaser wanted to taste the wine, then the purchaser has the option of renouncing the purchase to which they had committed if they did not taste the wine beforehand; on the other hand, if the seller proves the contrary, then the purchaser cannot be released from their commitment and must pay for the wine they ordered.

In the latter case, if the buyer refuses to take delivery of the wine, the seller may sue them for termination of the sale on the grounds of their exclusive fault and order them to pay damages.

See approval.