Nature is a system in perpetual interaction, where accumulations of ecosystems result from numerous parameters. So in continental Europe, the conditions of production are not the same as in tropical Africa or in the Rocky Mountains. By returning this principle to a smallest territory, France, answers to same (agricultural) work, whatever we are in Normandie, Burgundy, or in the Mediterranean will give totally different results.
Normandy is a wet and temperate country, Burgundy’s continental climate, has rigorous winters and short summers, the Mediterranean is a dry country with a hot summer season. In these three regions the agricultural work will be different, and will have production of another nature.
To come to the vines, Normandy after a failure of wine production in 12th century chose to make some wine of apple: the cider, Burgundy is a country hostile to vine, only a very narrow strip of land and the doggedness of the men enabled the production of wine, the Mediterranean is the cradle of vine, is also very favorable to the fruit production.
There are thus regions best adapted to the production of cow, beets, corn or grapes: here is the first definition of the word TERROIR.
The nature of the ground (clay, sand, pebbles, marls…) and its structure (compact underground, made of several layers, mixed…) and reliefs are largely going to influence the climate called macro-climate. So in Burgundy we succeed in producing some wine on a calcareous relief orientated to the East, while nowhere else in this region, production of wine is possible. The Southern Côtes du Rhône has the same climate as Languedoc or Provence, but blows a terrible wind along the river (the Mistral) which will greatly changes the conditions of culture: the méso-climate, here is the second definition of the word TERROIR.
In Languedoc, Costières of Nimes ( AOC) and the Pic Saint Loup ( AOC) have very close climates and use the same grape varieties. However the first appellation is planted in a ground made of rolled pebbles unless 20 km of the sea, the maritime humidity is going to allow to resist drought to grow. We do not find the same influence for second, nevertheless only 40 km of the sea, but the more clayey ground preserves humidity, and the cool winds falling from mountains refresh the vineyard during the night, giving another style to the wine. That are examples of microclimates: here is the third definition of the word TERROIR.
It is in Burgundy where this logic was most pushed, where working in vineyards for more than thousand years pointed the finest climatic influences: then this very importatnt partitioning of appellations. We speak over there about "climat", growing conditions change in the distance of some hundreds of metres, and produce different wines.
If you discuss with a winemaker, somewhere on the Earth, he will say to you that on the same parcel of land, maturity is not uniform, in the north or the south or in top or bottom of the slope, therefore in the same vineyard, one will thus find several climates or TERROIR.
Specialists also speak about the plant’s microclimate. Each vine has his own relationship with its environment, its own root system, its own foliage system, the ground and the exposure where it is planted is a little different that those of its neighbor, its genetic inheritance changes, too.
TERROIR is a good but complex concept, which, in a given place, for given conditions, for the same varieties, defined the concept of identity of a wine, its style and its global quality. It epitomizes the subblte knowledge of the farmer to them country.
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