Appellation d'origine contrôlée may label the wine "Oregon", but if the state is not a neighboring one (for example, a California vintner getting Cabernet from Washington state), the only permitted appellation is "American." In Canada, there is a government-sanctioned wine standard called Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA). It only applies to Canadian wines, and only the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia regulate it. Outside their home country, protecting the AOC status of certain products can face challenges, notably from a legal perspective. Some countries do not uphold a geographical indication system for their own products and thus, products which are labelled AOC in
Geographical indications and traditional specialities in the European Union colonised by the fungus "Penicillium roqueforti" that grows in these caves. This system is similar to appellation systems used throughout the world, such as the "appellation d'origine contrôlée" (AOC) used in France, the "denominazione di origine controllata" (DOC) used in Italy, the "denominação de origem controlada" (DOC) used in Portugal, the "denominación de origen" (DO) system used in Spain and the "Denumire de origine controlată" (DOC) system used in Romania. In many cases, the EU PDO/PGI system works parallel with the system used in the specified country, and in some cases is subordinated to the appellation system that was already