The Meaning of Terroir - Introduction

At every wine tasting, especially those comparing "old world" wine to "new world" wines, the inevitable question of terroir arises. terroir is a French term that literally translated means: earth, or soil.

However, there is no such thing as a literal translation of anything French. In a larger context, wine tasters try to define terroir as the specificity of place, which has come to include not only the soil in a region, but also the climate, the weather, the aspect of the vineyards and anything else that can possibly differentiate one piece of land from another.

This is especially true when comparing land in France with land in any other part of the world. As is often the case, the French believe the universe revolves around, well, France, naturally, so their terroir is unique.

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