Abstract

Today’s wine lover places great importance on wine-growing terroirs. A positive relationship has indeed been established between a wine’s place of production and its taste. However, this positive acceptance of the taste of terroir is not historically a given. Indeed, in the 19th century, and even up until the 1960s for many wine lovers, the taste of terroir associated with a wine had a very negative connotation. The creation of the system of controlled designations of origin in 1935 would slowly change this paradigm of taste. From then on, since the origin of wines was supposed to define their quality, it was a matter, for AOC producers, of demonstrating the uniqueness of appellation wines and convincing consumers of the existence of a positive relationship between origin—and therefore terroir—and quality. In a way, this meant sending to market only wines whose taste corresponded to the place name indicated on the label. In this context, scientific analysis, and tasting in particular, have become essential elements in the quality control of AOC wines. Thanks to actions aimed at streamlining and standardizing this sensory exercise, the wines shipped have better lived up to their promises. Above all, in this context, the complete overhaul of the tasting lexicon and its unprecedented extension to olfactory descriptors have provided a decisive tool for promoters of appellation wines. Thanks to a vocabulary now adapted to the new
standards, tasters have been able to distinguish the sensory characteristics
specific to each AOC and establish, with producers, buyers, prescribers, and consumers, the existence of a link between terroir and quality around a new word: typicity. In a way, these actors have constructed a common language from producer to consumer in order to establish a symmetry of information between the former and the latter and to stimulate the economic efficiency of AOC wines. Finally, in the 1960s and 1970s, a period of unprecedented growth in oenophilia, this new tasting discourse benefited from widespread dissemination, initiated by the networks of the National Institute of Appellations of Origin. Adopted on the one hand by French producers and influencers and on the other by foreign influencers, it quickly became an essential part of the wine market. A growing number of enthusiasts were then seduced by this new trilogy: aroma, typicity, and
quality.

Keywords: typicality, tasting, designation of origin, fine wine, Terroir