Terroir, pronounced “tear-WAHr,” is a French word that doesn’t directly translate into English but is usually taken to mean “sense of place.”

It refers to the conditions and variables of a specific place where vines are grown — from the general characteristics of a larger region (e.g. southern Rhône) to those of a small appellation* (e.g. La Romanée in Burgundy is about the size of a city block.)

The terroir of a place includes things such as

• climate

• latitude

• rainfall

• soil type

• elevation and aspect of the vineyard

• topography

• microbes in the soil

• local flora and fauna (including native yeast)

• geographical features (lakes, mountains, plateaus, basins)

• even the winemaking tradition in the region

The idea is that these things are so specific to a place that they define the characteristics of grapes grown there and hence directly influence the taste of a wine.

So next time a winemaker talks about wanting a wine to “express terroir,” they just mean that they want the distinct characteristics of the region to stand out in the wine.

Terroir. There ya go. ;)

*another French word, meaning a delineated wine region, defined by a governing agency

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