ABSTRACT
The discourse of the champagne region is full of references to terroir, as a glance at the website of the Comité Champagne or many of the major houses makes clear. Yet champagne is produced from a single, large appellation covering a wide range of natural environments: such a vineyard is very different from the notion of terroir in other parts of the world. This traditional champenois idea of terroir, which in terms of scale operates generically and without local specificity, sits perfectly with the way champagne is produced and marketed by the large houses which make millions of bottles with grapes sourced from all over the region. Nevertheless, this generic and ideological understanding of terroir is under challenge, predominantly from smaller producers who increasingly promote ‘terroir’ champagnes in contrast to the mass-produced, widely available, house brands with their focus on luxury, and who use terroir as a utopian notion, designed to reformulate both their philosophy and – perhaps – the way their wines are presented to the world. To examine these ideas further this chapter examines the context for the potential for utopian terroir in champagne, looking at both how utopia may be relevant to the region and how the idea of terroir has developed there. This is then supplemented by an analysis of the way in which terroir has been presented over the last 20 years.
