What does terroir taste of?

(WineAnorak) - An exploration of this important concept: is it a property of a wine?

There are three major influences on the taste of wine: grape variety, terroir and winemaking.

And of these three, perhaps the most interesting is terroir, which here I am defining as the physical environment the grape vine grows in, including human factors such as cultivation methods.

Terroir could justifiably be considered as the unifying theory of fine wine. Not all vineyard sites are equal, and no matter how talented the winemaker and how meticulous the viticulture, you can't make a great wine if you don't have a great terroir.

And we love to talk about terroir, and how it creates a 'sense of place' in a wine. But there's a question that I have never seen addressed before. What does terroir taste of?

Extending this question, we can ask: is terroir a property of the wine?

Imagine the following scenario. I sit down with a winemaker. She pours me one of her wines, and I take a sip. She asks, 'Can you taste the terroir?'

It's an almost unanswerable question. To pose it in the first place makes the assumption that terroir has a specific taste that a skilled taster should be able to recognize. I don't think this is the case, or if it is, it is rare. [Aside: is being able to recognize the origin of a wine, down to the vineyard site, a proof that terroir has a taste? Or is it about learning and experience. I think there is a difference. The terroir can influence the character of a wine without having a taste. But this may be a controversial statement.] I can't think of many instances where terroir is a taste, as oak might be. If you ask me, 'can you taste the oak in this wine?', often this would be possible. And we know the flavour compounds that oak barrels can impart to wines.