Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Terroir: At the Heart of Geography

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Geography of Wine

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the ways in which particular assemblages of vines and environments have emerged since prehistory, thereby giving rise to our notions of terroir. It reviews debates relating to the importance of terroir in the contemporary world of wine and develops two main arguments: first, that the land in which grapes are grown can, indeed, have a distinctive influence on the flavours of the wines made from them; and second, that different groups of people, be they grape growers or winemakers in various parts of the world, all have particular interests around which debates over terroir can be constructed.

Geography is a flavour

(Starbucks 2005)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    My translation: A terroir is a delimited geographical space, defined from a human community which in the course of its history constructs an assemblage of distinctive cultural traits, knowledge and practices founded on a system of interaction between the natural environment and human factors. The skill set involved reveals originality, conferring a typicity and permitting recognition for the products or services originating from this space and thus for the men who live there. Terroirs are living and innovative spaces which cannot be assimilated into a single tradition.

  2. 2.

    My translation: ‘of a very bad and disloyal grape called Gamay’

References

  • Asselin, C., Flanzy, C., Sapis, J.C. and Martin, J.D. (eds) 1996 Les terroirs viticoles – concept, produit, valorisation. Angers: Institut National de Recherches Agronomiques.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacci, A. 1596 De naturali vinorum historia, de vinis Italiae…, Rome: N. Mutii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barham, E. 2003 Translating terroir: the global challenge of French AOC labeling, Journal of Rural Studies 19(1): 127–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berlow, R.K. 1982 The “disloyal grape”: the agrarian crisis of late fourteenth-century Burgundy, Agricultural History 56: 426–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, G.C. 1980 Australian Winemaking: the Roseworthy Influence. Hawthordene, South Australia: Investigator Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Board on Agriculture, National Research Council (1992) Agriculture and the Undergraduate. Washington DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, J.E. and Meredith, C.P. 1997 The parentage of a classic wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon, Nature Genetics 16: 721–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, J.E. and Meredith, C.P. 1999 Historical genetics: the parentage of Chardonnay, Gamay and other wine grapes of northeastern France, Science 285: 1562–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, G.D. 1999 The Barossa Valley, Wine News February/March (http://www.thewinenews.com/febmar99/barossa.html. accessed 16th September 2009).

  • Brunhes, J. 1925 Human geography. In The history and prospects of the social sciences, ed. H.E. Barnes, 55–105. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Cato, M.P. 1933 On Farming, trans. E. Brehaut. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamot, E.M. 1926 Applied science in the provincial universities in France, The Scientific Monthly 22(5): 377–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charters, S., Lockshin, L. and Unwin, T. 1999 Consumer responses to wine bottle back labels. Journal of Wine Research 10(3): 183–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cion, J. 1908 Les paysans de la Normandie orientale. Paris: Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Columella, L.J.M. 1941, 1954, 1955 On Agriculture, trans. H.B. Ash, E.S. Forster and E.H. Heffner. London: Heinemann, 3 vols.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coombe, B.G. and Dry, P.R. (eds) 1988 Viticulture, Volume 1: Resources in Australia, Adelaide: Australian Industrial Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demangeon, A. 1905 La plaine picardie. Paris: Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickenson, J. 1990 Viticultural geography: an introduction to the literature in English, Journal of Wine Research 1(1): 5–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott-Fisk, D. and Noble, A. 1992 Environments in Napa Valley, California and their influence on Cabernet Sauvignon wine flavors. In Viticulture in Geographical Perspective, ed. H. De Blij, 45–72. Miami: Miami Geographical Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergaud, O. and Ginsburgh, V. 2008 Natural endowments, production technologies and the quality of wines in Bordeaux. Does terroir matter, The Economic Journal 118: F142-F157.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gladstones, J. 1992 Viticulture and Environment, Adelaide: Wine titles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goode, J. 2006 The Science of Wine: From vine to glass. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinkle, R.P. 1991 Just what is terroir anyway? Wine & Vines, March, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_n3_v72/ai_10645037/?tag=content;col1. accessed 16 September 2009.

  • Humoristes Associés (1980) Le Vin. Humoristes Associés, imprimé en Espagne par Tonsa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jekel, B. 1982 California wines: the quality factors, Decanter 7(12): 67–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jekel, B. 1983a Soil and the taste of wine, Decanter 8(5): 59

    Google Scholar 

  • Jekel, B. 1983b Soil and wine – the debate continues, Decanter 8(10): 15

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, P. 1966 Italy. In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Volume 1: the agrarian life of the Middle Ages, ed. M.M. Postan, 340–431. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lachiver, M. 1988 Vins, Vignes et Vignerons: histoire des vignobles français, Paris: Fayard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laffer, H.F. 1949 The Wine Industry of Australia. Adelaide: Australian Wine Board.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapsley, J. 1997 Bottled Poetry: Napa Winemaking from Prohibition to the Modern Era. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipton, M. 1977 Why Poor People Stay Poor. Boston: Harvard University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Loubère, L.A. 1990 The Wine Revolution in France, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. 1981 Capital: a critique of political economy, Volume 3. Harmondsworth: Penguin (first published 1894).

    Google Scholar 

  • McGovern, P.E. 2003 Ancient Wine: the search for the origins of viniculture, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasteur, L. 1866 Etude sur le Vin, ses Maladies, Causes qui les Provoquent, Procédés Nouveaux pour le Conserver et pour le Vieiller. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pliny 1945–50 Natural History, trans. H. Rackham. London: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pouget, R. 1990 Histoire de la Lutte Contre le Phylloxéra de la Vigne en France. Paris: INRA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prats, B. 1983 The terroir is important, Decanter 8(7): 16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, J. (2003) New German classification systems sees sense, http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/jr7044.html, accessed 12 October 2009.

  • Smart, R. and Robinson, M. 1991 Sunlight into Wine. A Handbook for Winegrape Canopy Management. Adelaide: Wine titles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Starbucks 2005 Geography is a flavour, http://www.starbucks.co.uk/en-GB/_Worlds+Best+Coffee/. accessed 16 September 2009.

  • Strabo 1949–54 The Geography of Strabo, trans. H.L. Jones. London: William Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taber, G.M. 2005 Judgement of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. New York: Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trubek, A.B. 2008 The Taste of Place: a cultural journey into terroir, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO 2005 Rencontres Internationales Planete Terroirs UNESCO 2005: Actes, Montpellier: UNESCO, SC-2007/WS/41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Unwin, T. 1991 Wine and the Vine: an historical geography of viticulture and the wine trade. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Unwin, T. 1992 The Place of Geography. Harlow: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varro 1912 On Farming, trans. L. Storr-Best. London: G. Bell & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidal de la Blache 1913 Les caractères distinctifs de la géographie, Annales de Géographie, 5, 129–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidal de la Blache 1922 Principes de géographie humaine. Paris: Colin

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, J.E. 1998 Terroir: the role of geology, climate and culture in the making of French wines, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkler, A.J. 1938 The effect of climatic regions, Wine Review 6, 14–16, 32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkler, A.J. 1962 General Viticulture, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkler, A.J. 1973 Viticultural research at University of California Davis, 1921–1971. Davis, CA: University of California, Davis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkler, A.J., Cook, J.A., Kliewer, W.M. and Lider, L.A. 1992 General Viticulture, 2nd edition, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zohary, D. 1995 The domestication of the grapevine. In The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, eds P.E. McGovern, S.J. Fleming and S.H. Katz, 23–30. Luxembourg: Gordon and Beach.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK

    Tim Unwin

Authors
  1. Tim Unwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim Unwin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lehigh County Government Center, South Seventh Street 17, Allentown, 18101-2401, Pennsylvania, USA

    Percy H. Dougherty

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Unwin, T. (2012). Terroir: At the Heart of Geography. In: Dougherty, P. (eds) The Geography of Wine. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0464-0_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation