For good food and wine to prosper, good producers need recognition and support. Terroirism is the culture of sharing and telling people about food and wines of terroir; produce that can be traced to its source of its production. Produce of terroir is handcrafted, made by producers with savoir-faire, passion and a strong personal story. Terroirism is about giving small to medium-sized producers an
opportunity to display their talent to a hungry audience. We want to empower consumers with means to understand what they are consuming and the awareness of terroir to help them make better decisions in a world full of confusing choices. Historically, terroir (pronounced tehr/wahr) refers to a small geographic area with distinct attributes, such as geology, geography and soil that are imparted into food products. A French word with no English equivalent, it is a sense of place that one gleans simply by tasting an agricultural product of a particular locale. Through the infusion of certain characteristics and the producer's guidance, a wine of terroir is a wine that displays aspects of regions that are recognizable by its distinctive smell and taste. Why Terroirism? Why Terroirist? If you think supermarket wines are a good bargain, then think again. When the price we pay for such wine is more than 300% of the cost of producing alcoholic juice after discount, what we are getting is not good value. Lacking economy of scale, many talented winemakers — because of their small size and lack of volume — stand little chance of getting the same kind of wide distribution or attention as their larger volume-driven peers. A Terroirist seeks produce that boldly reflects the spirit of its creators and its land of origin. Terroirists see the virtuous relationship between a sustainable food market system and the quality of its produce. For this reason, they choose to support small-to-medium artisanal producers who are committed to quality and put the integrity of their product over mass distribution or profit.
