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- Farmalance - 02-21-2004
My God!!
Now I find myself haunting Tokyo wine shops staring at foreign languages on labels. As if Japanese wasn't hard enough now I have to get a grip on French, Spanish, Portuguese etc etc
Two words that keep cropping up are 'terrior' and 'appellation'.
I have looked these up in a dictionary but would like to know what they mean in a 'wine' context.
Cheers
Lance
- Drew - 02-22-2004
Farmalance, hope these definitions help. Terroir is a hotly debated subject.
Terroir - French language term for all the characteristics of the vineyard site thought to be imparted to a particular wine. It is a term that includes geographic, geological, climatic and other attributes that can affect an area of growth as small as a few square metres.
Appellation - A government recognized geographical Viticultural area that defines the grapes origins.
The below link is a good article describing American appellation from the Modesto bee.
http://www.modbee.com/columnists/moran/story/7981435p-8852380c.html
Drew
- Tastevin - 02-22-2004
Hello Farmalance.
'Appellation' - Do not confuse with the words 'Appellation Controlee' (A.C.) which you will no doubt have seen on French wine labels. This is a much stricter wine law than that of America, Australia, New Zealand, to name just a few wine producing countries. For example, I am sitting here drinking Chablis. Because of the A.C. law I know that this wine is in fact from the delimited geographical area of Chablis, that it is made from Chardonnay grapes, that the maximum amount produced for sale as Chablis is controled (there are other major A.C. controls, but I won't go into them here). Somewhere in the States for example, someone could be drinking something called Chablis that is not made from the Chardonnay grape, has never been anywhere near France let alone Chablis itself, and has none of the characteristics of Chablis wine whatsoever.
I am mentioning this Lance, only to illustrate that the wine laws of one country pertaining to production and labelling may not be those of another. In short, bearing in mind your plans for the future, you need to check them all out as and when necessary.
T.
[This message has been edited by Tastevin (edited 02-22-2004).]