Terroir writ small is land, geology. Terroir writ large is people, geography.
Terroir writ large is about customs, traditions, and what the people of a land can pull forth from it. Food evolves to suit the landscape, the landscape evolves to suit the food. A dialectic.
Terroir writ small is concrete (soil, grapes, wine). Terroir writ large is abstract (taste, culture, norms ). Abstractions are unsettling.
Terroir is dismissed as elitist, bandied by wine writers to make their work sound important. It is decried as esoteric, abstruse.
Terroir is dismissed as Eurocentric, invented by the French and jealously guarded, not only the concept but the word itself. (Although even Italians use the French term, shrugging.) This website, the one you’re reading now, has been called Eurocentric because of its name.
Terroir is dismissed as old-fashioned, an historical artifact, a throwback to old dogmas. A nostalgic reflection of an older way of life that nobody remembers and is now told only in stories, mostly fictive.
Terroir is dismissed as insular, protectionist, reinforcing an us-them dichotomy. This is the most troubling critique given our era of political factionalism, because it can drive away the open minded, the open hearted. This has prompted me to interrogate my preferences, my favoritism of autochthonous grapes, of traditional forms, historic precedents. Does respect for terroir teeter on tribalism, on blood and soil nationalism? Or does it demonstrate the opposite: a simple reverence for enduring truths that somehow manage to stay relevant?
Terroir evolves, adapts. It is a vital concept, alive and always changing, especially as the globe warms. Its practitioners, its adherents, must be nimble, engaged in an ongoing dialogue between themselves and their place. Which makes terroir a thoroughly modern idea.
I have not seen writ small or writ large used much, so needed to refresh myself. After doing so, I read your piece again, then again. It should be included in any course that has a discussion of terroir. Your last paragraph says it all. Beautiful piece!
Lynn, thank you!
Thank you for good words about terroir. I am reading Nicolas Joly, who practices and writes about and spreads the joy of biodynamic agriculture (he grows beautiful chenin blanc in the Loire Valley). The concept of terroir which he suggests and illustrates beautifully, is profoundly applicable to essentially all of man’s relationship to the Earth, the soil, and it’s fruits. The dynamics of energy, which involve underground, at the ground, in the air around plants, in the atmosphere, and in the workings of man in the middle of all that, he understands to be components of terroir, which is essentially a microcosm of the infinite mystery of the universe. He attempts to put all this in his wine, with the hope that any other farmer will understand the beauty of this.
Will, thank you for reading and offering your insights. I had the privilege of meeting and tasting with Joly at his home in the Loire in April 2019. He, his wines, and his estate (terroir) embody everything you’ve so thoughtfully described.