Typology of Terroirs around the world
Abstract
It seems implausible that the geographical development of the vineyards could have been affected by a shift in the positions of the Earth’continents that started 250 million years ago. At one end of the geological timescale there are landscapes shaped by men, at the other, there are monumental upheavals so slow that they defy the imagination. In fact, the succession of landslides, collisions, eruptions, and subductions that marked the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras and the Tertiary period was indeed the original source of the rocks and great masses that were then chiseled into shape 2 million years ago, at the start of the Quaternary period, to form the wine-growing landscapes that we see today. The study of these different phenomena allows to offer a classification, a typography of vitivinicultural terroirs across the world according to the history of geology and geomorphology of the different vitivinicultural areas.
DOI:
Issue: Terroir 2012
Type: Article
Authors
Mas d’Arlenques 3 chemin des Combes d’Arlenques 34800 ASPIRAN – FRANCE
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Keywords
Continental drift, geology, geomorphology, terroir