 Terroir essentially is the stamp of a place upon the products produced there. There are many factors in the vineyard that affect the quality of wine produced. These include the general climate of a winegrowing region, the weather (i.e. the yearly variations in climate), soil, and topography (the slope, aspect, exposure and elevation of hills and their placement in the landscape). Many observers believe that these elements interact with each other to create a unique environment that necessarily produces a unique wine.
While there are ways to grow the grapes and make the wine that limit the influence of terroir upon a wine, it is undeniable that these elements play a significant role in defining the style and quality of any given wine. The concept of terroir developed over hundreds of years as it was noticed that certain plots consistently produced better wine than their immediate neighbors regardless of the conditions of a particular vintage. A track record of this length points to a concrete difference that cannot be explained by attributing it to one particularly talented grower or winemaker. Discovering the cause of these differences, however, is much more difficult than noticing their effect.
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Wine Regions of the World
