Is Terroir About Nature or Culture

One of the ongoing conceptual debates in the world of wine is whether “terroir” refers to geology and climate alone or should we include cultural influences and human decisions as part of the concept.

Master of Wine John Atkinson has a wonderful, rambling discussion of this issue specifically regarding the Burgundian terroir. The hillsides of the Cote d’Or are famous for the intricate patterns in the vineyards that determine variations in the qualities of the wines that emerge. Hundreds of growers each  own small plots of a few rows of grapevines, all Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and all are governed by strict rules regarding how the grapes are grown, harvested, and vinified. Yet, plots only a few yards from each other can produce wines with significantly different flavor profiles and quality levels. What accounts for these variations?

After noting the importance of variations in how the soil retains water to explain differences in quality, Atkinson points to the remarkable refinement and diversity of the wines that come from this region comparing them to the intricate workmanship of the beautiful cathedral at Chartres. Such intricacy could be created only by a people driven by a concept of the infinite detail of God’s perfection, as were the Cisterian Monks who cultivated Burgundy wines for centuries and carried out the intricate matching of soil to grape that lay the foundation for today’s Burgundian wines.

Over the centuries, the patronage of the Church and the devotion of the monks led to an increasingly intricate pattern of land use, as morphological and geological differences manifested themselves in wine styles which were scrutinized and calibrated by their creators. Once the process of division was set in motion it was hard to stop, because the activities of the monks were directed by theological certainties. Compiling evidence of God’s handiwork became a search for the detail and perfection within His design. The qualities of “perfection” and “infinity” were beyond man’s fabrication because, ultimately, they were the property of God, but you approximated them, as the artisans at Chartres had done, by elevating finity towards infinity and representing the sublime as best you could. The Cote d’Or’s complex geology prompted a complicated response….The ardour of the monks would have led to an ever more intricate pattern of land use once they’d begun recognising the divergent but consistent trends in wine style. In turn, these differences could only be properly elaborated if production was organised in such a way that it was responsive and sensitive to the small variations that were being generated. The method, duration and scale of manufacture were critical to their achievement.

Of course the monks succeeded only because nature provided the raw materials. In the end it is life endlessly diversifying according to Darwinian logic along with human beings driven by our ideals of perfection and extraordinary attention to detail that explain how a region can produce wines of such fine differentiation. HIs entire piece is worth a read.

There is no way to disentangle nature from culture, for culture is nothing but humanized nature, and in our modern world, nature is nothing but culture naturalized—two sides of the same coin. Yes, terroir is about geology and weather but it takes human beings selecting which changes to care about and which to discard to turn geological differences into great wine.