Terroir

Terroir (FR. Terroir) is the set of all local factors of winemaking that define the bouquet and the potential of the wine before aging.

The most complete and succinct definition, in my opinion, gave a famous American wine expert Hugh Johnson: the terroir is the environment of origin.

The term is derived from the Latin. terra – “earth”, “soil”. But as in the case of many technical terms, the literal translation does not give a full understanding attached to the term sense. Meanwhile, terroir – one of the key concepts for anyone who wants to understand good wines.

Now, for those who want to go into this in more detail: what is terroir from the perspective of the French themselves?

Despite the skepticism of the British, for a long time considered it “a special concept of” usual marketing an invention of the French, who wanted to create an aura of entitlement around their wines, the concept of terroir, actually – succinct and useful term.

The concept of terroir includes:

The soil on which the vineyard is located – including all the factors that are important to the winemaker: the type and composition of the soil; the number, thickness and levels layers; nutrient content; the ability to absorb and release moisture, to warm, reflect sunlight, etc.

Climate: the average and the peak values of air temperature and humidity, amount of precipitation, presence of fog, the length of daylight, etc.

The location and surroundings of the vineyard: altitude above sea level, slope of the vineyard toward the sun (the so-called “exposition” – the “southern slopes” and “Western slopes”), the proximity of forests and lakes.

In a broad sense this concept includes “the hands of the winemaker” – i.e. the tradition and details of vinification (the process of wine production), taken in this location at this vineyard specifically for this wine: from the grape harvest to the specific technology of filtration of the wort.

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Terroir wine is a wine, the bouquet of which is clearly distinguishable features common to wines from this area. Most often it is wine controlled by origin (i.e. AOC categoryAOPDOC).

However, if the wine is constant and recognizable in their flavor characteristics, reflecting the characteristics of the terrain of growing grapes, then we can talk about terroir wine even if it belongs to the category of classified wines (for example, belongs to the so-called “garage wine”).

As a rule, in talking about the wines of the terroir it comes to small wine territories, often single vineyard (CRU climate).

You can sometimes hear the question: “and what a great idea”? Like, all the same can be said, for example, about luhovickij cucumbers and Tambov potatoes. All the way. But. Winemaker for all of these factors are much more important because clogging bottles of “terroir” wine is the story of his life is not over but just beginning. Further in the bottle will start to occur biochemical transformations, which is at least 70% is determined by the grape variety and what the French aptly call “terroir”. The rest – the effect of yeast storage conditions and… chance.