The notion of terroir is used so readily in sales pitches that the wine lover may wonder whether it is not more a question of marketing than an agronomic reality.Even the most ambitious investor would never be able to re-create a real terroir as the formation of a soil-type is the result of complex interactions over hundreds of thousands of years. This relationship with geological eras makes each terroir totally unique and non-reproducible, giving each wine its singularity.
Few agricultural soils are suitable for producing good wines, and few winegrowing soils are capable of producing great wines. Modern technical methods now mean we can easily make a good wine, but only a great terroir, with the intricacies of its own soil and character, will produce a Grand Cru.
