Ginger Meggs, Wallabies and Terroir Down Under
By David Farmer The official body, Wine Australia, for reasons best known to itself embraces the French term terroir and encourages others to do the same by using phrases like ‘unique Australian terroirs’. Terroir is an interesting word and while its origin goes back to the nineteenth century, perhaps earlier, its regular appearance in wine commentary is quite recent. What it means can include a bit of everything, but it is French and finally wil l be whatever the French wish it to be. In a land of unique flora and fauna, Ginger Meggs, and ‘beaudy, bonza, mate’; to embrace terroir as Australian is the worst form of cultural cringe. That Wine Australia encourages the use of such phrases concerns me as we have no need for this cringe leaching across our landscape. It follows that if I can be certain about anything it is that use of terroir must have no part in the marketing of our wines. Selling wine is a deadly battle and each case sold is a hard gain and the last thing
