Terroir

Dai libri di ricette alle rubriche culinarie nei magazine generalisti, dalle riviste specializzate alle trasmissioni televisive, dai food blog alle videoricette veloci di Instagram, il cibo è al centro di un continuo processo di ri-mediazione. La deriva estetizzante ha trasformato il discorso intorno a ciò che mangiamo e la rappresentazione delle pietanze in un linguaggio a sé stante che, dotato di una sua grammatica, significativo e riconoscibile, può essere utilizzato per esprimere molte altre cose. La pornografia alimentare si sviluppa in una società dove la dieta ha assunto un valore politico e nella quale il corpo magro è indice di capacità di controllo, di buone abitudini di vita e quindi di buona cittadinanza. Il food porn, cioè la proliferazione dei discorsi intorno al cibo e la circolazione di immagini di alimenti proibiti, è una forma di carnevalesco, uno spazio di sospensione simbolica delle norme dietetiche in un contesto sociale in cui vige una morale rigidissima intorno ai confini corporei. La gastro-pornografia, tuttavia, è in grado non solo di appagare simbolicamente un desiderio represso, ma anche di veicolare significati politici, identitari e comunitari. Ecco allora che, in una società digitalizzata nella quale le pratiche alimentari e i dispositivi tecnologici hanno un valore centrale, prendono forma e significato i food porn media. È l’oggetto culturale cibo insieme al mezzo digitale a creare questa specifica meta-narrazione: senza i dispositivi mobili con cui si fanno foto e video e senza le piattaforme social in cui i contenuti vengono messi in circolazione, non sarebbe possibile la costruzione di questo specifico discorso. E se, nell’epoca in cui tutto è potenzialmente visualizzabile, significativo – e quindi politico – è solo ciò che riesce a risultare visibile, il cibo è oggi certamente una delle forme di comunicazione più efficaci.

http://www.egeaeditore.it/ita/prodotti/sociologia/aggiungi-un-selfie-a-tavola.aspx

The notion of terroir provides stability to the fleeting, ephemeral, and subjective quality of food. It situates flavours geographically and provides benchmarks for tasting and speaking about a particular product from a particular place. This paper argues how terroir is perhaps better seen as evolving, changing, and "moveable."

Terroir, an expression originally referred to only in viticulture and agriculture, has undergone a broadening of meaning and use in recent years. Formerly, it described primarily viticultural products in specific regions where local geographical features impart special physiological properties making them unique. Today, pressure from the general public and the media requiring detailed information on the origins and production processes of both food and beverage products in the quest for sustainability have resulted in the word “terroir” being used in the description of an increasing number of culinary products with an ever multiplying number of meanings. The concept of terroir has also experienced another transformation as a driver of authenticity for tourism destinations. Terroir and authenticity are intertwined as both are characterized with the idea of “an undisputed origin”. Having an authentic experience has become a prime driver for travellers in choosing destinations around the world. Food, beverage and gastronomy all play a critical role in driving a destination’s authenticity. And the replication of authenticity is difficult to perhaps impossible. By processing and offering local food products cultivated in unique rural regions, restaurateurs, and chefs are in fact creating a terroir renaissance. The interest of travellers in food-, gastronomy-, culinary tourism is on the increase. The literature shows that the concept of terroir is especially crucial in the hospitality and tourism industries where there is an undisputed growth in the awareness of quality products and sustainable food products. Hence, the purpose of this chapter is to investigate the broad spectrum of present day interpretations and perspectives of terroir and discussing its importance in the development of tourist destination as well as providing an authentic experience to travellers.  Food, wine and gastronomy from the French Jura department is presented to demonstrate the links between terroir, food and gastronomy in destination authenticity.

Notre travail se veut une analyse non-exhaustive des différents modes de représentation de la misanthropie dans la littérature québécoise, tel que ce thème a pu être traité dans un roman dit "du terroir", dans un roman de la ville, et pour finir dans un roman considéré par Robert Baillie comme "l’œuvre charnière qui m[i]t un terme au courant rural et qui accueill[it] les romans de la ville inaugurés par Bonheur d’occasion de Gabrielle Roy". Nous nous demanderons entre autres en quoi ces œuvres de Germaine Guèvremont, de Gabrielle Roy et d'Albert Laberge marquent une rupture par rapport à la tradition classique en représentant la misanthropie non pas comme un défaut qu'il s'agirait de "corriger par le rire", mais plutôt comme une caractéristique qui en vient à définir l'ensemble de ces univers romanesques.

Both François Rabelais's sixteenth-century mock epic in prose and the writings of the group of poets known as the Pléiade provide great insight into how fictional representations of food and wine linked origins to identity. 1 Consider the two influences in juxtaposition: on the one hand, Rabelais presents depictions of regional, cultural, linguistic, and culinary boundaries in order to transgress them, building walls only to break them down and create harmony among readers. On the other hand, the poets of the Pléiade use language on wine to reaffirm territorial distinctions, establishing identity and harmony by forming communities within regional walls. These influences in the realm of fiction created an important dialogue that dovetailed later in the century with a burgeoning corpus of wisdom texts on wine, farming , and food to mark the beginning of terroir's modern evolution. This chapter details that phenomenon, elucidating the literary contributions behind a specifically French brand of culinary aesthetics and regional identity in the Renaissance. Rabelais: transgressing borders in body, language, and space There is no better place to begin a discussion on the role of food in France's cultural imagination than Rabelais, who remains widely known for the extravagant culinary exploits depicted in his writing.

Terroir has been largely studied in vine and wine sciences for the purpose of understanding how interactions between soil, climate and microbiota affect a plant. This study reviews the terroir effect on vine physiology and grape chemistry and sheds light on the possible consequences on wine typicality. The terroir expression is optimal when vine precocity matches with local climatic conditions and when yield and vigour are limited through water deficit stress or low nitrogen availability. However, even if environmental factors do affect the composition of vines and grapes, there is no scientific argument that proves a terroir effect through any sensory marker in wine so far. Recently, promising studies have shown interesting results that bond microbiological and mineral footprint to taste and scent in wine. Further research is necessary to correlate terroir effect to wine typicality.

What do deep fried mars bars, cod, and Bulgarian yogurt have in common? Each have become symbolic foods with specific connotations, located to a very specific place and country.

This book explores the role of food in society as a means of interrogating the concept of the nation-state and its sub-units, and reveals how the nation-state in its various disguises has been and is changing in response to accelerated globalisation. The chapters investigate various stages of national food: its birth, emergence, and decline, and why sometimes no national food emerges. By collecting and analysing a wide range of case studies (including Portugal, Mexico, Slovenia, the USA, Ghana, Bulgaria, Scotland, Catalonia, Palestine, Costa Rica, Chile, Canada, Ecuador, and Israel) the book illustrates ways in which various social forces work together to shape social and political realities concerning food.

The contributors, hailing from anthropology, history, sociology and political science, investigate the significance of specific food cultures, cuisines, dishes, and ingredients, and their association with national identity. In so doing, it becomes clearer how these two things interact, and demonstrates the scope and direction of the current study of food and nationalism.

O presente artigo busca apoiar teoricamente a relação entre os produtos do terroir e a gastronomia. Com o apogeu da industrialização, modifica-se a relação do homem com o alimento. O surgimento dessa nova forma de se alimentar, através da comida, abre espaço para novas formas de se relacionar, como as cozinhas regionais e produtos do terroir. Na sociedade contemporânea essas relações se modificam novamente, devido às mudanças no que se refere ao tempo, espaço e consumo. Por meio do contexto sócio-cultural, vislumbram-se as potencialidades de valorização dos produtos do terroir no território brasileiro no mercado contemporâneo e sua relação com a gastronomia.

British pie aficionados associate the town of Melton Mowbray with the production of pork pies of exceptional quality. The “Melton Mowbray” name became a Geographical Indication (GI) in 2009. However, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association (MMPPA), formed to obtain GI status, was founded as long ago as 1998. This paper uses the Melton Mowbray case to explore the GI model that operates in the European Union (EU). Articles 22, 23 and 24 of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement are actualised through the national legislation of each World Trade Organization (WTO) member. This occurred in the EU at the time of the Melton Mowbray example via Regulation 2081/92. The paper draws upon material gleaned from interviews with the Melton Mowbray producers and Chairman of the MMPPA which are supplemented by transcripts of the legal conflict which pitted the MMPPA against a powerful rival manufacturer. The MMPPA argued that its adversary was too distant from Melton Mowbray and that it applied inauthentic methods of production. The out-of-place producer, in response, claimed that the “Melton Mowbray” name was generic and hence ineligible for GI protection. This detailed study of one of Britain’s most iconic regional foods investigates the conceptual and legal infrastructure that is common to all GIs. It provides an in-depth analysis of the constructions of place, boundaries and tradition that are deployed to generate GIs and legitimise the system. Moreover, this work demonstrates that the intricacies and nuances of the GI model can result in differing interpretations of these notions and thus lead to legal challenges from aggrieved producers.

This thesis provides an ethnographic exploration of McLaren Vale, a wine-producing region lying just south of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. As a near-urban agricultural area, McLaren Vale provides the setting for a number of complex debates about land use, landscape values, cultural heritage and regional identity. Contemporary perspectives on dwelling, place, and landscape contribute to the theoretical background of this study. In particular, this thesis is framed by notions of ‘terroir’, a term common in winegrowing and used to refer to the ‘sense of place’ that may be tasted in wine from particular locations. I contend that the particular terroir perspective taken by winegrowers in McLaren Vale is shaped by a globalised wine industry discourse as well as the locally-specific experiences of farming and winemaking in the region. Discourses of terroir describe the ways people and landscape, nature and culture, interrelate to produce geographically and socially-emplaced products. As an anthropological concept, terroir might also be used to explicate the ways by which the processes of production serve not only to produce agricultural products, but places and persons themselves. Terroir is significant not only in the way it is deployed discursively but as a tacit dimension of winegrowing and, indeed, being.
In the body of the thesis I explore different aspects of McLaren Vale’s terroir, encompassing local as well as broader regional and global processes, and focusing on the way these are embodied by and in people and places. The six substantive chapters deal with the historical and political-economic construction of McLaren Vale as a region; understandings of ‘locality’ and being local entails; terroir as it is expressed in winegrowing; the significance of temporality and rhythm; the role of embodied, sensorial engagement in placemaking; and the relationship of ‘city’ and ‘country’ in the imagining of McLaren Vale and its boundaries.
Dominant approaches to terroir in McLaren Vale are relational and processual, emphasising an ongoing dynamism of relations between people, landscape, and production, and that this is the way many people understand, experience and represent their own dwelling. This perspective encourages a view of McLaren Vale as a ‘living landscape’ imbued not only with productive power but productive potential, in which people, vines, animals, soil, microbes, and a host of other beings are mutually implicated. This, I argue, is reflected not only in regional wine production, but also in the orientations local people take to broader issues relating to landscape and land use.

El avance del proyecto de NOM 199 para obligar a los destiladores de agave a denominarse “komiles” demuestra oídos sordos a los casos exitosos no en el contexto local, sino global, y prueba el fracaso de las denominaciones de origen que en lugar de funcionar como detonadoras del desarrollo regional y promover la diversidad de productores pretende aniquilarlos.

Etymologically related, the concepts of terroir and territoriality display divergent cultural histories. While one designates the palatable characteristics of place as a branded story of geographic distinction, the other imbues the soil with political meaning. This paper traces the production of eno-locality in a contested space on both sides of the Green Line in Israel/Palestine. The case of the Yatir award-winning winery shows how terroir and territory are blended in the political economy and cultural politics of colonial place-making. Located on a multiscalar frontier—climatic, geopolitical, and viticultural—Yatir Winery positions itself simultaneously within the Mediterranean transnational landscape and in a biblical site of historical authenticity. Enacting strategic regimes of signification to target the increasing demand for high-end wines on both the global and local markets, it makes a claim for place, while appropriating Palestinian land and redefining ancient Jewish herit...

Terroir has been largely studied in vine and wine sciences for the purpose of understanding how interactions between soil, climate and microbiota affect a plant. This study reviews the terroir effect on vine physiology and grape chemistry and sheds light on the possible consequences on wine typicality. The terroir expression is optimal when vine precocity matches with local climatic conditions and when yield and vigour are limited through water deficit stress or low nitrogen availability. However, even if environmental factors do affect the composition of vines and grapes, there is no scientific argument that proves a terroir effect through any sensory marker in wine so far. Recently, promising studies have shown interesting results that bond microbiological and mineral footprint to taste and scent in wine. Further research is necessary to correlate terroir effect to wine typicality.

— This work assesses the relative importance of the terroirs factors: climate, soil and the relation source-sink, on the vegetative development, yield, berry composition and plant sanitary status. The study was carried out between 2011 and 2014 in nine vineyards from six viticultural regions over the coast of Río de la Plata (Uruguay). The cultivar studied was Tannat, vertically trellised and north-south oriented. The year effect refers to climate, which was characterized using solar irradiation and three indices. The soil was characterized using pits and physico-chemical analyses, to determine three textural categories and to define soil depth and water availability. The source-sink relationship referred to four categories of relations between leaf surface and yield per vine. Statistical analyses included a Mixed Model with random effects to determine the relative importance of each factor to the total variability within the dataset. Total yield per vine was explained by the source-sink relationship, the year and their interaction, both linked to the rainfall amount occurred during the maturation period. The synthesis of primary compounds in the berries was more dependent on the year and the interaction of soil and year with the source-sink relationship. Secondary compound concentrations in the berry depended mainly on the source-sink relationship and climate. This study represents a significant advance to the knowledge of grapevine adaptation to the Río de la Plata terroirs, assigning a fundamental role to the vine grower actions. The growers can modulate grapevine balance as a function of the environment.

Si l’on fait dire au terroir beaucoup de
choses, teintées souvent de bienveillance,
il est plutôt un mot valise qui recouvre une
pluralité de situations, d’acteurs et de logiques.
Tout en étant une réalité fragmentée,
tant au niveau des savoirs et que des
réalités empiriques, l’adoption d’une définition
du terroir par l’UNESCO en 2005 participe
d’un processus de normalisation à
vocation internationale. Ce chapitre propose
ainsi une approche critique de l’émergence
du concept à la lumière de son histoire à la
fois scientifique, professionnelle et politique.
Sa reconnaissance institutionnelle internationale
au travers d’une définition dont
l’ « opérationnalisation locale » vient traduire
des formes d’hybridation de la notion est
discutée. Cette cohésion conceptuelle se
heurte à des réalités empiriques plurielles
où les réappropriations du concept opérées
localement ne correspondent pas nécessairement
au modèle tel qu’il avait été envisagé.
Considérer le terroir comme un paradigme
permet de faire un examen critique de
ses soubassements épistémologiques
et idéologiques. Les quelques pistes ici
formulées soulignent dès lors une conception
occidentalo-centrée, elle-même aux prises
d’une idéologie du développement durable
intégrée dans les mailles du capitalisme.

This study assessed the effects of slope exposure, altitude and yield on several cup quality criteria of coffees from two altitude terroirs of Costa Rica, Orosi (between 1020 and 1250 m above sea level) and Santa María de Dota (between 1550 and 1780 m above sea level). East-facing slopes gave beverages with generally superior attributes, probably owing to better exposure to morning sunlight. These beverages were mainly more acid: at Orosi an acidity score of 2.73 out of 5 was obtained (3.64 for Santa María de Dota) for eastern exposures, as opposed to 2.36 on average (3.28 for Santa María de Dota) for other exposures. In addition, a positive relation was found between altitude and taster preferences in both terroirs. A negative relation was also found between yield and beverage acidity at Santa María de Dota, where some coffee trees produced up to 13 kg of coffee cherry. Coffees from Orosi were characterised by a floral flavour, which depended on slope exposure, whilst coffees from Santa María de Dota displayed a chocolate taste, which was more marked at high altitude. In both terroirs the caffeine, trigonelline, fat, sucrose and chlorogenic acid contents were not well correlated with the sensory characteristics. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry

Since the 1980s microbreweries in Ontario have gained in popularity, winning over beer drinkers in the province and earning the support of the provincial government that funds the expansion of this creative industry. The Emergence of Ontario Microbreweries, adopting the theoretical perspectives of Margaret Archer and Michel Foucault, looks at the factors explaining the emergence of the craft beer industry. Through the morphogenetic approach, which sees enablements take shape through entrepreneurial pursuits, and disenablements through Foucauldian disciplinary processes, we observe that Ontario microbreweries were constrained by strict government laws. Enforced by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, these laws acted upon the individuals and their ability to consume alcohol both privately and publicly. Over time, the strict governmental regimes which constrained beer drinkers and micro-brewed beer producers gradually transformed to allow for the expansion of microbreweries that create unique, distinct and authentic products that have specific geographic links to community.

The EU is ferociously protecting its Geographical Indications (GIs) in the name of authenticity and rural development. Not only in the countries of the EU, but internationally. Australia and most other New World countries protect geographical names via their trademark system, but also via a sui generis system. This Article is looking at the approaches of the protection of geographical names in the respective systems and on the strategies vintners use to exclude each other in the

"Terroir is a French word, derived from the latin ‘territorium’, meaning territory. It long retained its original meaning of ‘territory’ (ground, country, region) but developed a more specialized connotation as ‘location’ or ‘soil’, considered in terms of its ability to support specific types of agricultural production. It is strongly associated with regional foods such as tea or coffee and viniculture in particular. Reference to wine is redolent in the use of the term, as in the following evocative expressions: ‘goût du terroir’ (tasting of terroir) or ‘sentir le terroir’ (smelling of terroir).

More recently, the word has been used as a synonym of ‘origin’ to evoke a ‘sense of place’ and combine implicit reference to distinctive attributes of locality and terrain. It denotes a rural region considered as shaping the distinctive characteristics of its inhabitants, language or local culture, including the local accent (accent du terroir). This usage associates social and cultural practice and place with connotations of roots and origin, tradition and heritage.
"

Multi-sensor airborne remote sensing has been applied to the Itanos area of eastern Crete to assess its potential for locating exposed and known buried archaeological remains, and to delineate subsurface remains beyond the current limits of ground geophysical data in order to permit future targeted geophysical surveys and archaeological excavations. A range of processing techniques (e.g., Reed–Xiaoli anomaly detection) have been applied to the CASI, ATM and lidar data in order to detect anomalies based on the premise that buried remains are likely to alter the physical and chemical characteristics of the soil compared with those of the surroundings due to variations in soil depth and drainage. Through a combination of CASI, ATM and lidar data, surface remains have been classified and mapped effectively using an object-oriented approach. The detection of subsurface remains is more problematic; however, the thermal data is most promising in this respect. The value of capturing multi- or hyperspectral data at a high spatial resolution has been demonstrated as well as the additional benefits of combining these with airborne lidar.

Author Mark Kurlansky’s quote underlines just how unique our relationship with salt is. Every European language has its equivalent of “The salt of the earth” or “Not worth his salt,” sayings which represent the value of salt, at least in earlier times. This paper explores why salt is not simply sodium chloride, using the long history of the saltworks in Trapani as a starting point for an investigation that finds salt at the intersection, in the past and today, of economics, politics, and social relations. The paper also examines the documentation that lead to Slow Food recognizing Trapani salt as a presidium, and poses questions about the correct place for artisanal alimentary products, as well as about the curious link between them and identity.

We hear that Dom Perignon could taste a single grape from each arriving tub and know immediately by the taste where it had come from, and exactly how it should be blended with other grapes for the perfect champagne.Brillat-Savarin tells us that Roman gourmands could taste Tiber fish and know whether they had been caught ‘between the bridges’ (i.e. in town) or lower down the stream. This indissoluble bond between place and taste – a strong-as-steel yet nearly transparent strand which only a true connoisseur can perceive – is commonly referred to by its French name, terroir. I will argue here that it is nonsense.

Instrument specific tunings and fostering distinctive style have been cornerstones of Balinese music for generations.  However, tuning systems as sonic structures have diminished considerably with the expanse of modernity and the invasion of conservatory-trained teachers into village contexts where 'unique tunings have consequently disappeared over recent decades' (Harnish 2005).  With the influx of 'transnational popular styles', globally oriented youth-culture may be oblivious to what sonic structures lurk just beneath the surface of homogenized diatonic soundscapes.  Therefore it seems pertinent to address the issue of what has been recently deemed 'musical invasives', not as preservationists, but as active agents in the dynamic, multi-tiered exchange between industry leaders, researchers and local bearers of culture to participate in the active recreation of soundscapes that are sustainable and musically diverse. In this paper I do just that by examining the applicability of a highly prescriptive approach to biological systems called terrior to the arts and humanities.  I will argue that 'musical terrior' as a concept may provide a framework for approaching and empowering musical systems such as the increasingly endangered Balinese tuning systems that may be nurtured and cultivated to satisfy local agendas against the backdrop of dominant global cultural forces.

This chapter argues that the tasks and processes of wine production undertaken by small-scale producers not only serve to bring forth or unlock a 'sense of place' in the wine but can also be seen to continuously produce place itself. In the skilled performance of these tasks, winegrowers engage intimately with the world around them at a sensorial level: including touching the soil and the vines, feeling the sun, wind and rain in the vineyard, smelling and feeling the warmth of the fermenting grapes, and tasting the wine at different stages of its production. For many, such physical interaction (hands-on doing) is extremely desirable in wine production, as wine's 'authenticity' is often considered to relate to the close interaction of people and place working in concert. It is this sort of deep and attentive sensorial engagement of people with their worlds, over time, that provides not only practical and intellectual 'knowledge' but also a rich topography of feelings and emotions attached to places and landscapes. I argue that the production of this sort of emotional space, via the hands-on tasks and activities of small-scale wine production, is a crucial element in the development among many such winegrowers of a relational or animic perspective, through which they see themselves, their vines, wines and other aspects of their worlds as fundamentally intertwined and interrelated. Wines, vines and wine places are thus invested with 'meanings' and 'emotions' — social products which are nevertheless linked inextricably to the sensuous materiality of production and consumption.

Les qualifications beldi-roumi, fondées sur une appréhension du « local » et de « l’étranger », existent pour une diversité de produits et d’êtres vivants. Il s’agit ici de restituer toute la richesse et la complexité que révèlent ces termes vernaculaires en termes d’appréhension et de traitements socio-culturels d’une diversité de ressources agricoles et pastorales produites et consommées dans et autour de Chefchaouen. Au delà d’une simple classification binaire locale dans laquelle le beldi renverrai au terroir, ces qualifications sont fluctuantes, parfois temporaires et redéfinies au grès des contextes sociaux et des types d’êtres ou de produits concernées.
Publié dans les Etudes & Essais du CJB : http://www.cjb.ma/289-les-collections-du-cjb/10-etudes-et-essais/beldi-roumi-heterogeneite-d-une-qualification-ordinaire-2888.html

Copyright, patents and trademarks are well-known types of Intellectual Property (IP). However, there is another form of IP known as Geographical Indications (GIs). Foods, drinks and agricultural products can be certified as GIs. The quality of each GI is considered to exclusively or significantly derive from the
supposedly unique physical attributes of the defined and bounded locations from which they originate. The use of GIs discriminates between producers who are categorised as in-place or out-of-place. This determines the firms that are permitted to invoke economically valuable geographical names. Producers
of GIs rely on notions of place, boundaries and terroir to validate their claims to GI status. These are intrinsically geographical factors with which our discipline has long engaged. However, the GI system itself has rarely been studied from a geographical perspective. This paper interrogates the constructions of place, boundaries and terroir common to the conceptual infrastructure of all GIs. It employs Stilton Cheese – one of Britain’s most iconic territorial foods – to illustrate these ideas. The Stilton case also
shows that taken-for-granted ideas of place and production methods can be challenged by motivated adversaries who introduce new evidence in their quest to destabilise this GI. The overall aim of this work is to draw attention to the geographical infrastructure of this expanding regulatory system and more fully
reveal the interests served by the GI model.