Terroir

Terroir ( in French) was originally a French term in wine and coffee appreciation used to denote the special characteristics of geography that bestowed individuality upon the food product. It can be very loosely translated as "a sense of place" which is embodied in certain qualities, and the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the manufacture of the product. Terroir is often italicized in English writing to show that it is a French loanword, although many now regard it as a word naturalized into English.

The Terroir-France website asserts that "a 'terroir' is a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine." Some writers include history, tradition, vineyard ownership and other factors.

The contemporary meaning of the term clearly goes beyond mere geography, but at that point disagreement begins. Some assert that terroir is distinct from the characteristics imparted by the plant variety, the vintage and production methods (vinification, etc.), and is the product of a range of local influences that are transmitted into the character of the product.

The question of whether terroir is quantifiable, and the role that terroir plays in producing a "good" wine are matters of some controversy. To complicate the issue even more, some oenophiles use the concept of terroir to refer to wines that are distinctive and unique to their place of origin. In this case, terroir refers not to land but to wine.

Elements

The components of terroir may include:

Mesoclimate
Soil type - Is it rich in nutrients or barren, is it primarily chalk or clay?
Geology - Good drainage or poor, is the bedrock shallow or deep?
Aspect - Do the plants get lots of sun due to being on a south-facing (in the northern hemisphere), steeply sloped site?
Altitude - higher altitude means the same amount of sun but lower temperatures
Vineyard management practices, including such things as vine spacing, direction of rows, fertilization techniques, "green harvesting," pruning practices, harvesting techniques, and other factors.
Vinification practices including blending choices, length of fermentation, temperature of fermentation, proportion of new oak barrels used for ageing, length of aging, fining and filtering decisions, and many more factors.
Human history of the land, including length of time the land has been cultivated, who has owned the land, and many more factors.

Does terroir exist?

The concept of terroir means that wines from that terroir are unique, incapable of being reproduced outside that area, even if the variety and winemaking techniques are painstakingly duplicated. For the French, who claim to be home to many of the finest terroirs in the world, this is simultaneously self-evident and also extremely self-serving. Winemakers in Burgundy do not believe that they are producing Pinot Noir that happens to be grown in Burgundy, but that they are producing unique Burgundian wines that happen to be made from pinot noir. Only since the early 2000s, in the face of consumer demand, has it been legal to put "Pinot Noir" or "Chardonnay" on the front of any Burgundian label. (See wine labels). The French believe that place of production is much more important than the grape variety or the producer.

The opposite argument comes from those who do not believe in the concept of terroir. They agree that many aspects of terroir are important to wine quality, such as drainage, aspect, etc., but dispute that the combination creates something truly unique and better. Some argue that perceived local characteristics of wine come predominantly from factors such as local wild yeasts, rather than from factors such as soil and microclimate.

In the middle are those who agree that terroir causes wines to be different, but believe it has no impact on the overall quality of the wine. In their thinking, a Volnay can be a great wine even if it doesn't taste much like other Volnays.

Top-level terroir

In wine, the Burgundy region is often considered an excellent example of terroir. Examples include earthy notes found in Savigny and perfumed red fruit in Volnay and Chambolle – though both are different. In theory, parcelling of the land into smaller lots (crus, lieu-dits or whatever you prefer to call them) has nothing to do with the wine market or any type of marketing for that matter. The legend is that scholarly monks controlled the vineyards for 500 years or longer and believed they could characterise the differences. The idea is to rank quality of terroir starting at the top with grand cru, followed by premier cru, villages, regular Bourgogne, and ending finally with Bourgogne Ordinaire. In reality, while many sites indeed were identified hundreds of years ago, the INAO has often expanded the most notable to include lower-quality land, and occasionally promotes sites to premier or grand cru. Furthermore, the ranking is based on the inherent potential quality of the site, and is emphatically not a ranking of actual wine quality. The quality of the terroir can easily be obscured by substandard winemaking.

Someone tasting in a number of wines from the premiers crus may perceive them as more concentrated and interesting than the villages wines, and perceive a similar jump from premier cru to grand cru. However, the role of terroir in this can be difficult to determine. One important factor may be expectancies, which is one reason blind tasting is so important. (For example, people expect more expensive wine to have more desirable characteristics than less expensive wine. When given wine that they are falsely told is expensive they virtually always report it as tasting better than the very same wine when they are told that it is inexpensive.) Grand cru wines have lower legal limits on yield, such as a nominal 35 vs 40 hl/ha (350,000 vs 400,000 l/km²), and so on for village and Bourgognes, so they would be expected to be more concentrated. Also, the percentage of new oak tends to increase as the price increases, another difference that is unrelated to terroir. However, despite differences in winemaking, most people do not dispute the effects of terroir. And terroir certainly affects market price.

However, in blind tastings, Premiers Crus often fare poorly against other wines. In the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, the creme de la creme of French wine experts ranked a California wine as the best red wine and three of the four top whites were from California. The results of this and many subsequent blind wine competitions around the world suggest that the importance of terroir can easily be overstated.

For example, in the Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981, "thirteen wines were involved, and California swept the first five places, defeating Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux and Château Haut-Brion, all from the excellent Bordeaux vintage of 1970." These are all Premiers Crus as established by the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 and have the greatest terroirs in France.

Wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. contends that the terroir-based cru classification system has long victimized consumers. He asserts that mediocre wines have sold for too much thanks to their cru classifications, and that good wines have sold for too little for lack of a ranking. For these reasons, Parker says that cru classifications "should be regarded by both the wine connoisseur and the novice as informational items of historical significance only."

Sources

Echikson, Tom. Noble Rot. NY: Norton, 2004.
Lukacs, Paul. American Vintage. NY: Norton, 2000.
Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
Terroir-France What does terroir mean ?.

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Elements

Does terroir exist?

Top-level terroir

See also

Sources