Terroir

The WSET describes terroir as the natural environment where the grapes have been grown, encompassing everything that makes a site unique, including its climate, soil and topography, and adds that what is best for one region may not be ideal for another. The OIV's 2010 definition is broader: vitivinicultural terroir is an area in which collective knowledge of the interactions between the identifiable physical and biological environment and applied vitivinicultural practices develops, providing distinctive characteristics for the products originating from that area. In Burgundy, the BIVB says that a thousand years ago the Benedictine monks of Saint-Vivant de Vergy and the Cistercians of Cîteaux first realised the value of Vosne-Romanée's plots, and traces Montrachet's origins to the Middle Ages and the work of the Cistercian abbey of Maizières and the Lords of Chagny.

• WSET definition: the natural environment where the grapes have been grown, including its climate, soil and topography, which all play a vital role in the ultimate taste and quality of the wine
• OIV definition: Resolution OIV/VITI 333/2010, certified in Tbilisi on 25 June 2010; terroir includes specific soil, topography, climate, landscape characteristics and biodiversity features
• Descriptive, not legal: the OIV adopted the definition for descriptive use by the vitivinicultural sector and flagged the need to prevent confusion with the legal definition of a Geographical Indication
• Burgundy's word for a site: Andrew Jefford (Decanter, 2018) glosses a climat, citing its UNESCO-listed definition, as 'a vine plot, with its own microclimate and specific geological conditions, which has been carefully marked out and named over the centuries', and dates the word's first use to 1584

INAO says France's decree-law of 30 July 1935 created the Comité national des appellations d'origine des vins et eaux de vie and entrusted it with the recognition and regulation of new appellations d'origine contrôlées, and that the law protects not only the name of the product but also its distinctive features and its link with a specific terroir, distinguishing it from mere indications of provenance. The first AOCs were recognised on 15 May 1936: Arbois, Cassis, Cognac, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Monbazillac and Tavel. At EU level, a protected designation of origin (PDO) identifies a product whose quality and characteristics are essentially due to a particular geographical environment, produced within a determined geographical area using recognised and recorded know-how (EUR-Lex summary of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, which supplements Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013).

• Co-decision: INAO notes that administrations cannot modify the proposals of its bodies, a principle of co-decision between professionals and administrations that survives in the Institute's dual governance
• PDO and PGI: PDO wine must be produced exclusively with grapes from its area, while a PGI product needs at least 85% of its grapes from the area (EUR-Lex)
• Burgundy's pyramid: the BIVB counts 84 AOCs, including 7 Régionale and 44 Village appellations and 33 Grands Crus, whose labels replace the village name with a single Climat name
• Neighbouring plots differ: the BIVB links Burgundy's profusion of appellations to the diversity of its natural conditions, noting slight differences in aspect and/or soil type between two neighbouring plots

In an AWRI presentation, Dr Peter Dry lists climate, geology, geomorphology, soil and human influence (selection of sites and practices such as irrigation) as factors that may influence terroir, and argues that it is pointless to try to explain terroir in terms of a single factor. In his account, macroclimate and mesoclimate (site climate) have great influence on growth, fruit composition and wine style and quality, and are affected by altitude, cold air drainage, large water bodies and sea breezes. In his slides, topography (geomorphology) has an indirect effect on terroir via altitude, slope and aspect, with slope listed alongside erosion and soil depth, radiation interception and thermal load, and air drainage. Geology's role is likely to be indirect as well, acting through soil type, root depth, slope and drainage. Dry calls soil physical properties very important in terroir expression, singling out soil water status.

• No perfect geology: Dry's AWRI examples of high-quality wine on varied geology include schists (Douro, Mosel), chalk and limestone (Champagne, Chablis, St Emilion, Burgundy, Rioja, Barolo, Coonawarra), clay (Napa Valley, parts of Pomerol), sand (parts of Margaret River, McLaren Vale, Barossa) and granite (Beaujolais)
• Soil physics over chemistry: Dry names waterholding capacity, cation exchange capacity, root penetration, rootzone temperature and drainage, and reports no correlation between wine typicity and soil content of any nutritive element except nitrogen, deficiencies and excess NaCl aside
• Kimmeridgian limestone: the BIVB says Chablis Grand Cru vines grow on marls and Kimmeridgian limestones containing tiny fossilised oysters (exogyra virgula), formed in the Upper Jurassic some 150 million years ago
• Site as well as rock: Dry notes that Chablis' best wines are said to come from Kimmeridgian limestone and lesser wines from Portlandian limestone, but that the Kimmeridgian sites are all south-facing sunny slopes and the Portlandian ones all cool and windy plateaux

The BIVB describes Chablis Grand Cru as showing intense mineral scents (flint) with room for lime-flowers, dried fruits and almond, richly nuanced by the variations in each of its seven Climats. Dr Peter Dry's AWRI presentation says soils with rocks or stones appear to elicit allusions of minerality, but that the inorganic chemical profile of a grape berry bears only a distant and indirect relationship with vineyard geochemistry, that vinification magnifies the disconnect, and that rocks cannot be tasted because they do not volatilize. His conclusion is that the rocks do matter in terroir expression, but not necessarily in a direct way.

• Tiny quantities: the total inorganic content of wine is 0.15 to 0.4%, per the same AWRI presentation
• Winemaking reshuffles minerals: fermentation can remove copper and zinc while adding aluminium, calcium and iron, so the proportions of minerals in wine bear little relationship with the vineyard's geological minerals (AWRI, Dry)
• Minerality as metaphor: Dry accepts minerality in a metaphorical sense, used the same way as descriptors such as truffles, sweaty saddle or cigar box
• Climats as sensory fact: the BIVB says Burgundy's Climats are a physical and sensorial reality, not a marketing tool, and suggests tasting their wines to grasp them

In Vosne-Romanée, where the vines grow at 250 to 310 metres and face east or slightly south of east, the BIVB describes Romanée-Conti (1.81 ha on its fact sheet, accessed 2026) as always a singly-held entity on brown limestone soils 60 cm deep with a major clay component, over hard Premeaux limestone of the Jurassic; next door, Romanée-Saint-Vivant has similar but deeper (90 cm) soils. Montrachet (7.79 ha on the BIVB fact sheet, accessed 2026), shared by Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet, has thinnish soils on hard limestone traversed by a band of reddish marl at 250 to 270 metres, while Chevalier-Montrachet sits at 265 to 290 metres on thin, stony rendzinas; the Montrachet Grands Crus date from 31 July 1937. In Chablis, the Grand Cru, recognised since 13 January 1938, forms a continuous band of seven Climats along the right bank of the Serein at 100 to 250 metres, and the BIVB says more than 5,400 hectares of Chardonnay are planted on Kimmeridgean soil in the district. Beyond France, the WSET (2025) says the South of England, home to a majority of sparkling wine producers, shares the same chalky soil as Champagne.

• Romanée-Conti: a Grand Cru in Vosne-Romanée, named after Prince Conti, who lost his heart to it in 1760, and always a singly-held entity (BIVB)
• Montrachet: white wine only, from Chardonnay; one of five Grands Crus in the Montrachet family grown in Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet (BIVB)
• Chablis Grand Cru: seven Climats (Blanchot, Bougros, Les Clos, Grenouilles, Preuses, Valmur, Vaudésir); Les Clos may be the original kernel of the Chablis vineyards, first exploited by the Cistercians of Pontigny (BIVB)
• English chalk: WineGB says the South East's signature chalk soils, running through the North and South Downs, have drawn inevitable comparisons to Champagne, while Greensand, Wealden and London clay add diversity

Decanter reported in 2019 on a study by researchers writing in the journal of the European Geosciences Union, which analysed and cross-checked harvest data for Beaune back to 1354: from 1354 to 1987 grapes were on average picked from 28 September, while during the 31-year period of rapid warming from 1988 to 2018 harvests began 13 days earlier. The researchers said outstanding hot and dry years were outliers in the past but have become the norm since the transition to rapid warming in 1988. Andrew Jefford (Decanter, 2018) notes that Burgundy's climats became legislatively fixed when their appellations were decreed, mainly in the 1930s, when October harvests were the rule, and argues that the ripening potential of the Côte d'Or has moved upslope and sometimes downslope since. At the cool margins, the WSET (2025) says global warming has made southern England increasingly suitable for growing grapes, with a climate that mirrors Champagne's of fifty years ago while staying cool enough for grapes to retain a high acidity.

• Beaune harvest record: average picking from 28 September over 1354 to 1987, and harvests 13 days earlier over 1988 to 2018 (study reported by Decanter, 2019)
• Heat is not the whole story: the researchers found the most outstanding heat and drought years were not necessarily the earliest harvests, concluding that grape development slowed down or even stopped during very long rainless periods and extreme maximum temperatures, as in 1540 and 1473
• Fixed maps, moving climate: in Jefford's 2018 column, Romain Taupenot of Taupenot-Merme says of Burgundy's classifications, 'If it was done now the results would be very different'
• England: the WSET (2025) says Nyetimber was the first to plant the traditional Champagne varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier) in West Sussex, in 1988, and that those three grapes represent about 70% of the grapes planted in the UK

Primary sources: https://www.oiv.int/public/medias/379/viti-2010-1-en.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2022/september/27/busting-wine-industry-jargon, https://www.inao.gouv.fr/en/history-1935-1970, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/decoding-the-aocs/bourgogne-wines-decoding-the-aocs,2467,9263.html, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/bourgogne-and-its-appellations/romanee-conti,2458,9253.html?args=Y29tcF9pZD0yMjc4JmFjdGlvbj12aWV3RmljaGUmaWQ9MzgyJnw%3D, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/bourgogne-and-its-appellations/montrachet,2458,9253.html?args=Y29tcF9pZD0yMjc4JmFjdGlvbj12aWV3RmljaGUmaWQ9MzU2Jnw%3D, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/bourgogne-and-its-appellations/chablis-grand-cru,2458,9253.html?args=Y29tcF9pZD0yMjc4JmFjdGlvbj12aWV3RmljaGUmaWQ9MjYxJnw%3D, https://www.bourgogne-wines.com/wine-and-terroir/our-natural-assets/geology/the-heritage-of-the-paris-basin/chablis-the-grand-auxerrois-and-the-cha-tillonnais-on-the-edges-of-the-paris-basin,2480,9402.html, https://www.awri.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/dry-w08-awitc15.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2025/the-rise-of-english-sparkling-wine/, https://winegb.co.uk/wines/regions/, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/wines-and-wine-sector-products-protected-designations-of-origin-protected-geographical-indications-traditional-terms-labelling-and-presentation.html. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/burgundy-harvests-earlier-study-423807/, https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/opinion/jefford-on-monday/burgundy-climats-terroir-question-397929/. Last verified 2026-09-28