Definitions of terroir
Terroir is defined as a unique combination of soil, topography, climate, plants and viticultural practices that result in grapes that are the raw material for wines with a distinctive character. Wine connoisseurs all over the world pay more for some wines because of terroir. Some producers even state that they do practically nothing and the merit is entirely in the terroir. Indeed, many people think that wines today are the natural consequence of several thousand years of seamless quality wine production.
Everything about terroir wines looks so magic, beyond our comprehension, and indeed so closely hooked to a particular territory that we accept the superiority of that territory’s wines as something natural, even supernatural. This is a very old trick; in order to exert power, leaders prefer to call divine what is human. We forget that wine is not a gift of nature but the result of hard work of well-trained people on domesticated mutant grafted plants that would not survive without vine grower’s care and lots of knowledge and technology to render.
In my view, definitions of terroir are good but incomplete. Terroir is not the first condition to produce great wines. Terroir gets its full sense when it is considered within a fine wine region producing well-defined wine styles. Within those circumstances, a great terroir is the combination of natural circumstances mentioned above plus the brains and the hands of the vineyard and winery players, which results in wines with higher perceived quality.
Terroir and History
In order to justify my thesis, I propose to take these definitions, together with history. Terroir has not changed in 5000 years but for a few climatic variations which are not relevant for my examples following. However, historic conditions developed in such a way that some terroir regions disappeared while others were born, and we can even anticipate some terroir wines next. Terroir becomes a consequence of history, rather than a permanent feature.
Gone with the wind
The first historic references to terroir wines praised for their quality were from Egypt. Some of this wine, to be drunk only by the most powerful and wealthiest, came from the terroir of Lake Mareotis, in Nile River delta. The wines were kept for years, in carefully sealed amphorae with an indication of origin. The climate was similar to today, the soil is still there, but would anybody think of producing fine wine there today?
Still in Egypt, the Jews received the signal to migrate to the Promised Land when given a vine branch from Canaan. From that moment, much wine was produced in the regions for centuries, with renowned quality; during the Byzantine Empire, the wines from Gaza were particularly famous. Gaza was a terroir region that drowned into oblivion in the 1400s, until now. Did the terroir die?
Some centuries before, Pliny wrote a list of the best wines on Earth, with a clear terroir-based approach. The best one was Falernum. Today, there is a DOC Falerno del Massico, producing decent wines, but by no means the best in the world. Indeed, Falernum became so popular that it became a region of mass production. Its terroir did not even survive the Roman Empire. Avarice, rather than the Vesuvius volcano killed it.
In 1632, the most expensive wine in England was the Canary, at a price more than double than Bordeaux. Canary came from my homeland, Canary Islands. Connoisseurs distinguished Orotava from Telde or Gomera, and there was even a grand cru, the Ramble. Then, in 1668, Canary terroir suffered a first coup. Charles II of England wed Barbara de Braganza of Portugal. As a consequence, Portuguese wines took over in the British market. There were some recuperations and relevant trade until the 19th century, but the lack of a stable market resulted in declining qualities and the final oblivion of Canary (until now, when new markets allow rediscovering those terroirs).
Great terroirs, not so natural
Some terroirs have been fabricated: until the 17th century, the Médoc was a region in perpetual fight to survive against the sea and the sand. Whole villages were destroyed by the nature; agriculture was impossible. Flemish and Dutch workers, and then the French government, undertook a huge process of desiccating marshlands and fixing dunes that resulted, in the adjacent areas, in one of the most precious fine wine regions on Earth. Even now, top terroirs benefit from man-made drainage systems; otherwise, the cabernet would not ripe so well. This is very different to the classic terroir perception of natural conditions conducive to wine growing.
In other cases, terroir was realised by industrialists, as they liked to be called at the time. Barolo was irrelevant as a wine region until 1830, when Staglieno applied the French technology to ferment wines dry and age them in oak vats. Yet, the fine single vineyard terroir wines of Barolo were not identified until the 1970s, when there was a market for them. Rioja was invented in 1858, by Marqués de Riscal who inherited some land at Elciego and decided to produce wine according to ‘industrial’ (read Bordeaux) methods. The terroir was the same, but it needed to be revealed by technology. Single vineyards started to be a fashion in the region only in the 21st century, although the terroir was there for millennia.
Sometimes, leaders stay in loneliness for a long time, because the economic conditions to follow them were not there. Biondi Santi at Brunello di Montalcino was one of the rarest and top Italian wines for 75 years, producing in amazing loneliness until the 1970s, when others joined the terroir wagon, thanks to the commercial success in the USA. Nowadays, Brunello is one of the most terroirist appellations. Vega Sicilia in Spain is a similar case, a lonely winery around which a whole appellation, Ribera del Duero, was created, in 1982. Now several hundred producers sing the eternal values of their terroir. Casa Ferreirinha with its Barca Velha was for decades the lonely red wine myth of Douro region, then dedicated to fortified wines, although the region’s potential was always there.
Tomorrow’s terroirs
Nowadays, we can see some future fine wine regions and therefore newborn terroirs. Virginia was Jefferson’s nightmare in the 1780’s, but now it is a region attracting lots of respect for its wines. With so much investment in the region, one can see some icon wines emerging soon.
Ningxia the new kid on the block
Ningxia in China is a very difficult environment to spot a terroir: extreme temperatures, which oblige to bury the vines in winter, dryness, much wind. Despite that, Ningxia shows the glossiest wineries, with the most fashionable wine. Ningxia is bound to be a top terroir region. For 400 years, Swartland was a poor region for cheap wines. Now, some of the most valued South African wines come from century-old vines in those dry lands. Soil and climate are the same, but the plant’s age, the producers and thousands of people living far away from Swartland, who buy their wines, are different.
Conclusion
Professor Francisco Mora wrote recently: “Beauty does not exist in the world we see, hear or touch. It does not reside in anything surrounding us. It exists only in the mind of human beings.” Fine wine is beauty.
Beauty comes in levels often considered as quality. A marginal increase in beauty can result in huge increases in value. When there is a limitative factor allowing for such increases, terroir shows up. Examples are in climates such as Burgundy or Rheingau, where ripening depends mostly upon natural vineyard capacities. Or it is in Champagne, Napa or Australia, where ingenuity, investment and effort by producers are the key, and natural features are secondary reasons..or in the case of arid regions, when the vines are much older than their neighbours.
Conditions for Top Terroirs
In all cases, any top terroir must meet the following conditions:
- To be appreciated and actively promoted by powerful and rich people, helping them to exert power and become richer. The first condition for terroir is a customer. There is not a single top wine region in the world escaping from this rule. All romanticism about poor humble small growers is just that, romanticism.
- To have one or several leading ambitious producers. In the world of fine wine, there is nothing like natural growth, ambition is the mover.
- Land property rules must be clear and stable in time. Communist regimes destroyed wine countries like Georgia, Armenia and Moldova. Inheritance laws are a threat for French vineyards. Corporations have problems to see long-term. They buy old vines but do not plant vines bound to become old, for instance. Because of that, individuals aiming to transcend, in countries with solid property rules, create most great wines.
- Production, transport and trade efficient infrastructures are crucial. The huge development of those facilities in the 21st century is a major reason for the appearance of new terroirs, as much as:
- Investments in research and technological development. All great wines were innovation in their time. Tradition without innovation heralds the death of a wine region. Any new great wine must be different to classic wines, otherwise, it will second fiddle.
- Foreigners. Only they have the vision, independence and audacity to state nice wines as great. Local people is unable to escape from the small world ofthe known. Even Middle Age’s Popes and kings looked for recognition from abroad to exalt their wines.
When all these conditions are united, a fine wine region is born, and the laws of natural terroir work. There are wonders in the world of wine, but no miracles!
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