Terroir – a dirty four letter word

 

The French word or term “terroir” cannot be translated into English in one simple word. When I did a search on the Internet, the first definition I found read as follows

 

“ ‘ 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.”

It then goes on to say “Terroir   =   Region   +   Appellation   +   Grapes   +   Wine making”

That seemed like a very broad definition and interpretation so I checked the Oxford Companion to Wine and it said

 

"much-discussed term for the total natural environment of any viticultural site. No precise English equivalent exists for this quintessentially French term and concept. Discussion of terroir is central to philosophical and commercial differences between Old World and New World approaches to wine. Major components of terroir are SOIL, and local topography, together with their interactions with each other and with microclimate to determine Mesoclimate and vine microclimate. The holistic combination of all these is held to give each site its own unique terroir, which is reflected in its wines more a less consistently from year to year, to some degree regardless of variations in method of viticulture and winemaking.

 

Why is terroir important? Indeed does it have any place in modern Australian winemaking or is it just something for Old World wine bores to bang on about whilst enjoying a bottle of Chateau Furkin Expensive First Growth?

 

The rules governing the way wines are made in France are very different to those in the new world. In Australia, most quality wine generally states the grape variety contained in the bottle. If you call a wine Shiraz, it must contain at least 85% Shiraz. Most wines are marketed based around their grape variety. There is no mandatory requirement to state where the grapes are grown, although in many cases this is voluntarily indicated on the label.

 

In France, the rules are very different. If you take Bordeaux for example as there are only five major red wine grapes allowed to be grown in the area, you can buy a bottle of “Claret” and have no idea of which of the five grapes are included; or even in what proportion. The emphasis is much more heavily weighted to the origin of the grapes.

 

In many ways, the notion of terroir is now realistically a French wine marketing tool which has become ingrained and fundamental to the complete upper echelon of their wine marketing and distribution process. So to say that the French have a vested interest in promoting “terroir” is akin to saying “Telstra has a vested interest in the use of phone lines.” In other words, they (both) could do things differently, indeed they can and do do other things, but their business is firmly rooted and dependant on one major aspect of their operation.

 

The fundamental difference between the terroir lovers of the old world and those in the new world, who don't think it's important, has simply come about due to the differences in the way two wine worlds market their products. As silly as it may seem, that is the original root and foundation for the divergence of opinion. It's got very little to do with what's in the bottle; it's all about tradition and how the wine has been marketed and sold.

 

No doubt, the above paragraph will stick in the craw of most Old World wine lovers but if they put aside their preconceptions and think about it rationally, whilst they mightn't like the conclusion, to a great extent it is one that cannot be logically avoided.

 

Old World wine lovers, whilst drinking their favourite tipples, adore concentrating on the nuances of terroir and the characteristics it brings to fine wine. Yet when those same wine lovers drink wine from the new world, all they can perceive is fruit, oak and a wine without soul. But is that perception reality?

 

Do New World wines have terroir or not? Obviously wine that is blended with multiple parcels of fruit from areas within a large region by definition does not qualify as having terroir. But yet there are a load of wines that are either single vineyard wines, or wines that are only made from the same parcels of single vineyard fruit year in and year out.

 

Just a few that come to mind, Henschke Hill of Grace, Cullen Diana Madeline, d’Arenberg Dead Arm, Elderton Command, Jasper Hill Georgia, Jim Barry Armagh, Kay Bros Block 6, Marius Shiraz, Tahbilk 1860’s Vines, Tim Adams Aberfeldy, Veritas Hanisch, Wendouree, and Winter Creek. The wines mentioned vary in price from $25 to $300+ a bottle and all of them would be within the definition of having terroir. All are made with estate grown fruit and use the same parcels year in and year out.

 

Based on either of the two definitions above, surely these New World wines (and plenty of others) qualify as having terroir, so why don't New World wine drinkers dive into the terroir aspects when consuming these wines? In some ways they do, especially if you have a look at the second definition which is “Terroir   =   Region   +   Appellation   +   Grapes   +   Wine making”.  The New World wine lover tends to concentrate on the grape and the winemaking aspect, rather than the region and the appellation. Old World wine lovers would tend to concentrate more on the region and the appellation. Once again, this gets down to the cultural differences between the way Old World and New World wines have been marketed. In the New World, it's all about winemaking and grapes, were as in the Old World is all about region and appellation; yet in many ways, when it comes to terroir, it is an integral part of the equation on both worlds.

 

In many ways, there are two different groups of people, discussing two sides of the same coin whilst arguing vehemently about the characteristics of the coin, with neither side being able to see that in fact they are arguing about the same thing.

 

There is one further aspect that in time will make the terroir aspect even more confusing for the Old World wine lovers; the impact of Robert Parker Jnr on winemaking practices and styles in Bordeaux has had wide exposure, and some producers are starting to make wines that that have many New World characteristics, showing very ripe fruit and higher alcohol.  Are some Bordeaux chateaus chasing high Parker scores at the expense of “terroir”? But that’s another story.