As I surf the current state of the Wine Web I collect links to interesting things that I hope to offer up to readers. Occasionally something just gets lost in whatever is the digital world equivalent of the cracks between the sofa cushions. That’s why I haven’t posted anything about this extremely interesting article on some of the current thinking about the concept of terroir

Written by Roger Bohmrich, it explores much of the debate over the meaning of the term. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it dives into some of the complexity of the issue, especially when one attempts to describe terroir as something more specific than the lovely shorthand “somewhereness” which Matt Kramer has coined.

Ultimately, if terroir is really to mean anything (and plenty of people INSIST that it not only means something, but means nearly EVERYTHING when it comes to evaluating the greatness of a wine), it must be more specific than a nice turn of phrase.

This article is a good starting point for both understanding what has come before and where the debate is going. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how to talk and think about wine.