Wine Trivia - Terrior (Wine Wino)

Terrior is a term which is thrown around lightly but in truth is something quite profound. Terroir is a widely used phrase that holds true in some parts of the world more than others. A French phrase that is not translatable but simply put refers to is the land’s imprint on the grape and ultimately the wine. In California, where winemakers can take wines from throughout a widely varied County or area, the wines become more a process of the winemaker than of the location of the grapes so terroir is not as much of a factor as the terroir of Burgundy or Bordeaux where each region truly produces specialized wines typical of only their territory that reflect the land and character found in the region.

Case in point - have you ever had a wine with a distinctly minty flavor? That might have come from the Eucalyptus groves that grow in the area near the vineyard. If an wine growing area is surrounded by these groves, odds are that the distinctly minty flavor permeates all of the wines grown in this region, thus marking the terrior of those wines.