In Other Words
Savour the flavour
Connoisseurs characterize wine according to its terroir, or sense of place. Terroir—from the French word terre, or “land”—refers to the unique flavours conferred by the local environment: factors such as soil, climate, and horticultural practices combine to create a wine’s special characteristics.
Now, we in the North are not known for our spectacular wines, but we don’t need a vineyard to have a sense of place.
Though our towns, villages and cities share the label ‘Northern BC’ (i.e. ‘north of Vancouver’), our individual communities are as different as the wines on the shelves at the local L.C.B. In chatting with Northword readers I hear that they think of communities across the region as having different personalities. Terroir is more complex than personality. It’s more akin to character—deeper, more enduring.
How would you describe your community’s terroir? Take into account physical characteristics such as topography, soil, climate, vegetation, and wildlife. Then, consider human elements of culture: population, work and business opportunities, politics, neighbouring communities, volunteers, and visitors. How do all these factors combine to create the local flavour of your community?
Taste the local terroir—it’s easy! You don’t have to stoop to tasting the soil like a die-hard vineyardist; just go for a drive along Highway 16 and stop every hundred kilometers or so to sample the saskatoons—or if you’re really keen on doing your research, do a little networking and suss out the local blueberry patches.
Local farmers’ markets are Meccas for ‘terroirists.’ We may not be famous for our champagne or shiraz, but we do grow fantastic produce and free range meat products, and offer a yummy variety of artisanal products.
Fall fairs are also an excellent way to sample local flavours in both the raw resource and value-added categories—not just in the displays of locally grown produce and livestock, but in the baking and canning exhibits; the crafts and creative categories. Locally sourced musicians and entertainers add extra zip.
Like vintners, there’s more than one way that local economies can utilize the local terroir. They can use it to create a distinctive place-based product (such as river-rafting the Skeena). Or, they can situate their business (which could be anywhere) here, and incorporate the local terroir into their plans. In the first case, the terroir is the primary feature (as in destination-based tourism), and in the second it’s the supporting feature (such as a restaurant franchise, university or call centre).
We don’t need local wines to showcase the deliciousness of our local terroir. We can savour it in so many ways.
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