Integration of the AOC and terroir concepts by future professionals of the international wine sector

A survey has been conducted on 32 students and 25 former students of 28 nationalities of an international master course training executives of the international Wine sector. They were asked about their perception of the concept of terroir, its potential application in their professional life and home country and the link they make between European viticulture and terroir. Two analysis were conducted: comparison pre-post terroir module on a same population and a descriptive analysis of two populations post terroir module: students and graduates. The following of the course increased the richness of the definition of terroir given, from environmental and technical factors to the inclusion of the interactions and historical and social factors. According to them, the notion of terroir is or will be applied in their professional life mainly for commercial differentiation or to improve the quality of wine through adapted cultural practices. European viticulture is seen as traditional and mainly “of terroirs”, but the persons surveyed consider that other wine regions in the world develop “terroir” viticulture. Coming from all other the world, they consider the application of terroir concept in their mother country as a means of differentiation of the products or improvement of cultural practices, but without taking an existing appellation system as model.