Questions Uncorked

Nov 17, 2008

This is a terrific question and one that is a challenge for all wine educators. The French word terroir actually doesn’t have an exact translation in English. So, the best way to describe what this word means is “the taste of a place.”

So what does “the taste of a place” mean? Well, for starters, it signifies that there are certain factors that influence every growing area to make no two regions in the world exactly alike. For wine, we tend to think of terroir as being the combination of grape, climate and soil that leads to a unique taste in the wine.

Terroir, or the taste that a place imparts to a wine, is especially important to grape growers in France. Part of this is because in France, historically there has been less emphasis placed on grape variety and more attention paid to where the grapes are grown. In fact the appellation system (the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée or AOC system) is based on the concept of terroir – that each grape-growing region is distinctive and even within a region there can be a hierarchy of quality. The AOC system also recognizes that different grapes do better in different regions.

The argument about whether or not a wine can show terroir can start to get very complicated and philosophical. In general, the smaller the vineyard area from where the grapes are being sourced, the more you are likely to taste a certain “distinctive-ness” in the wine. Wines that are made from grapes sourced from multiple vineyards scattered around a very large area typically show less regional character or typicity when compared to wines made from grapes from one vineyard.

I think what is most interesting about the idea of terroir is that it is something that you can experiment with and taste for yourself. You can experiment with tasting different appellations to see if you can find some common aromas and flavors. You can try doing a taste test to compare wines from France and California for example, or you could try doing a comparison tasting with wines from a particular region. You could take a wine from a basic regional appellation, Bourgogne Rouge for instance, and taste it against a smaller, more distinctive appellation within Burgundy like Gevrey-Chambertin. You could even take it one step further by tasting a wine made from grapes from a Grand Cru vineyard within Gevrey-Chambertin, such as Ruchottes-Chambertin. Granted, this experiment might start to get a bit pricey, but if you had some friends to split the costs of the bottles, then it could be a really fun way to try to taste “terroir.” And naturally, there is no better way to understand the concept of terroir than to actually try to taste it for yourself. Learning is always so much fun when it comes to wine!