- The flavors of a wine, spirit, or other alcoholic beverage that are imparted by the environment where it was produced. Typically, terroir refers to the way grapes present different flavors depending on the type of soil in which they are grown, resulting in a single varietal tasting different from one region to the next. However, distilled spirits may also exhibit terroir, if their base grains or fruits impart unique flavors from their respective regions.
Pronounced tare-WAH (roughly, though proper French pronunciation ends in a voiced uvular fricative, or “French R”)
Origin:
Derived from the French word “terre,” meaning “land”