Techniques that can mitigate the influence of terroir in the vineyard include canopy management to improve the amount of sunshine received by the vine, limiting the amount of fruit on the vine to improve concentration and irrigation to compensate for a lack of rainfall among others. In the winery, there are many other options open to compensate for a less-than-ideal site: must adjustments or concentration, pre-fermentation macerations, the use of enzymes during fermentation, and devices such as rotofermenters, micro-oxygenation and spinning cone machines among many others. In many New World countries, interregional blending can also be used substantially reduce differences due to terroir.
Ultimately, the terroir that produces a wine is not an absolute dictator of style, as may have been the case in an age with less ability to compensate for nature’s shortfalls. It presents, rather, one of the possibilities open to the winemaker. It is sometimes useful to distinguish between terroir-driven wines and winemaker-driven styles. While modern technology expands the possibilities open to the wine producer, there is a unique quality expressed in the “sense of place” that is conveyed by those wines that bear the stamp of the place where they were produced.
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Wine Regions of the World
