Terroir

At Chateau La Gaffeliere, the young guide gave us some very informative talks on the history of the region and on the wine. He answered a question about what terroir is.

Terroir is a combination of soil, micro climate, exposure, altitude, attitude, and local conditions.

The French produce what the land is best at producing, and then look for the market, rather than look to see what people want and then treat the land perhaps with fertilizers, to produce the wine that's in demand.

Secondly, wine and terroir suits the food of the terroir. Thus a Sancerre wine goes with food in a hunting region, but St Emilion is not a hunting region. The wine from St Emilion goes well with the food of the terroir such as duck, like this duck with fruits in the photo.

There's a longer discussion at the wine anorak site here.