Transforming Terroir: French Wines and the Return of Regional Identities

This paper will examine the transformation of the notion of terroir from a collective reference for marketing French wines to a language for expression of local and regional identities in the 20th century.  I trace the historical shift within the wine industry to focusing on material elements of terroir (soil, climate, and environment) as the source of superior taste. Although the influence of material elements on plants and animals seemed incontestable, opinions differed greatly on the role of terroir in determining the quality of finished products.  Scientists' inability to explain the complex elements that taste professionals report experiencing--the so-called goût de terroir--in wine, fueled debate about both the reality of terroir and the need to protect it.  The paper will continue by examining how terroir offered a language for talking about wine’s value outside of the market and the value of French culture more generally.  I will outline of the way that terroir came to be imagined by a cross section of the French population (writers, artists, academics, entrepreneurs, farmers).  These collective imaginings were, then, recuperated and accommodated by the wine industry in the post-1945 period as part of a collective branding strategy linking wine, terroir, and the French nation.