Soil and the Environment - Soils for Fine Wines - page 1

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Soil and the Environment

The Soil and Terroir

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English has no exact translation for the French word terroir . But terroir is one of
the few words to evoke passion in any discussion about soils. One reason may be
that wine is one product of the land where the consumer can ascribe a direct link
between subtle variations in the character of the product and the soil on which it
was grown. Wine writers and commentators now use the term terroir routinely,
as they might such words as rendezvous, liaison, and café, which are completely
at home in the English language.
French vignerons and scientists have been more passionate than most in pro-
moting the concept of terroir (although some such as Pinchon (1996) believe that
the word terroir has been abused for marketing, sentimental, and political pur-
poses). Their views range from the metaphysical—that “alone, in the plant king-
dom, does the vine make known to us the true taste of the earth” (quoted by Han-
cock 1999, p. 43)—to the factual: “ terroir viticole is a complex notion which
integrates several factors . . . of the natural environment (soil, climate, topogra-
phy), biological (variety, rootstock), and human (of wine, wine-making, and his-
tory)” (translated from van Leeuwen 1996, p. 1). Others recognize terroir as a dy-
namic concept of site characterization that comprises permanent factors (e.g.,
geology, soil, environment) and temporary factors (variety, cultural methods, wine-
making techniques). Iacano et al. (2000) point out that if the temporary factors
vary too much, the expression of the permanent factors in the wine (the essence
of terroir ) can be masked. The difference between wines from particular vineyards
cannot be detected above the “background noise” (Martin 2000). A basic aim of
good vineyard management is not to disguise, but to amplify, the natural terroir
of a site.
Terroir therefore denotes more than simply the relationship between soil and
wine. Most scientists admit they cannot express quantitatively the relationship be-
tween a particular terroir and the characteristics of wine produced from that ter-
roir . Nevertheless, the concept of terroir underpins the geographical demarcation

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