How Feng Shui is your Terroir?

A "terroir" is a combination of various elements that will make a wine unique.

Those elements are a mix of natural factors (climate, soil, hydrology, etc.) and human decisions.

If your Pouilly Fumé tastes so good and so smoky, check the soil mate, and see one of the answers: there are, among other elements, flint stones down earth that give an extraordinary minerality to the wine, and its unique smokiness.

Amazing right?

Well you can imagine that this explanation doesn’t ring a bell to many people, and un-surprisingly here, in Asia, I got a lot of “funny faces” staring at me while I try to explain why a flint can change the life of a winemaker forever.

Once again, just take off your own shoes, slip into theirs, and try to see what in their world would look closer to that concept, and would make sense, following the local rituals and routine.

I never really understood the concept of Feng Shui for a while. But the more I tried to dig into it, the more I found – somehow – the similarity with my notion of Terroir.

According to the Collins dictionary, Feng Shui is “the Chinese art of determining the most propitious (..) placement of a grave, building, room, etc, so that the maximum harmony is achieved between the flow of chi of the environment and that of the user, believed to bring good fortune”.

Some people might disagree, and I would understand. But, believe me or not, I saw some enlightened faces carefully listening to me when I began to compare "my" Terroir to "their" Feng Shui. 

If you put all the good elements together (wind, air,water etc.) you'll get the best out of it, and you'll make a unique wine.
Terroir has to be Feng Shui.

This made my day. No. It made my YEAR. 

I realized that, no matter how hard you try to explain a concept, if you use only your own “in house” western codes, and don’t try to accommodate to the local routine, no matter how hard you struggle explaining your vision, only funny faces will look at you.

"Seyha, I told you that this is not Champagne, this is Prosecco... Champagne comes only from Champagne, remember?? It's an AOC

(.....)

... just like Kampot Pepper ! it can not come from Vietnam!"

Globalization has it's own good sides.