The concept of terroir in 18th-century France, Part II: The wind beneath its wings

The concept of terroir had begun its rise from the ashes during the first half of the18th-century and continued that ascent during the century's remaining years. In 1765, Louis de Jaucourt, writing in the 17th volume of Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie, elaborated on the specific flavor characteristics that a wine from a specific region needed to exhibit. According to Parker (Tasting French Terroir), "It was not merely a question of which area yielded the best wine, the most healthful, or the most pure but which produced individualized flavors that were true to their place of origin."

Louis de Jaucourt (wikipedia.org)

Another force for the good of terroir was the burgeoning Societies d'Agriculture, regional gentlemen's clubs that met monthly for agriculture-themed discussions. The popularity of these clubs in this period was in marked contrast to a condescending attitude towards anything associated with the earth that was characteristic of the late 17th century. It was also a testament to the success of Rousseau's efforts in the current century. This popularity, according to Parker, "... attests to the economic and social transformation of French identity: being close to the earth was in vogue, as long as one didn't get too close."

Mapping France by culinary production also served to frame identity and reinforce the regional nature of terroir. The pioneering effort was the work of Pierre Jean-Baptiste Le Grand d'Aussy, a famous culinary writer of his time. His Histoire de la vie privée des Français mapped France according to agricultural production, regions, and characteristics of its inhabitants (Parker).

This pioneering work was replicated and improved upon by a number of writers (see an example below) in the period just after the revolution. The country was in search of itself in that timeframe and culinary maps provided a mechanism for framing identity and expressing nationalism. Parker: "... the phenomenon managed to reinforce terroirs and individualize regions while at the the same time disassociating Paris from the rest of the country."

By Jean François Tourcaty - Cours Gastronomique ou Les Diners
de manant-Ville, ouvrage Anecdotique, Philosophique et Litteraire,
2nd ed., Paris, 1809.Cornell University: Persuasive Cartography:
The PJ Mode Collection, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44352381

By the end of the 18th century, the concept of terroir had become recognizably modern. Parker uses the work of one group of canonical agricultural writers to illustrate this point. These writers differentiate between  a natural goût de terroir -- a welcome flavor in wine -- and an artificial goût de terroir -- a defect. The authors perceive the former as "a normal element of the earth's contribution to the wine" and a positive aesthetic aspect. "The flavors that issue from the wine are both caused by the wine, and result from the minerals in the soil, appearing as delicate fragrances (violets, raspberries) and prestigious flavors (truffles)"

Artificial terroir, on the other hand, were unpleasant smells that could be produced in vines and wines as a result of (Parker):

• Certain plants and trees growing in the vicinity of the vineyard
• Use of the wrong type of fertilizer
• Smoke from a lime kiln or charcoal stove.

At the end of the 18th century one could unabashedly say to the proponents of the concept of terroir: "You've come a long way baby."


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The concept of terroir in 18th-Century France: Part I, a Phoenix rising from the ashes

The concept of terroir stumbled into the 18th century battered and bruised and looking for someplace to hide; the 17th century had delivered some devastating body blows. According to Thomas Parker (Tasting French Terroir), at the beginning of the 18th century, "... the influence of terroir was considered mostly in relation to those lacking autonomy of intellect, possessing imperfect language, or having deportment sullied by the provinces ..." In this post I examine the fortunes of the concept during the pre-Revolutionary period, again drawing heavily on Parker's work.

Terroir began its long climb out of purgatory with the 1719 publication of Jean-Baptiste DuBos’ Réflexions critiques sur la péinture. In his writings, DuBos postulated a climate-based identity; that is, the characteristics of a people were determined by their resident climate. And that climate was itself acted upon and determined by the native soils. Further, if a person, or plant, were to be moved to a new environment, that entity would undergo transformations resulting from the influences of the new environment.

Jean-Baptiste DuBos
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1020739

DuBos used this reasoning to stoke nationalism in that, he said, French temperament and products were highly desirable and were a result of France’s temperate climate. According to Parker, in contrast to where things stood at the beginning of the century, “… in DuBos there is a general democratization and terroir appears without explicitly derisive connotations.” So, for the first time in a while, we see the word terroir used without the writer metaphorically holding his nose.

Baron Montesquieu, in his De l’esprit des loix (1748), built on DuBos’ work by specifying that the French national character was attributable to marl, the predominant soil in Champagne. This is a significant step, moving from a shaming of things associated with the earth to a soil type now being acclaimed as the key determinant of the national character.

Baron Montesquieu. Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

The next major step in the rehabilitation of terroir was the effort of Menon, a famed cookbook author, to redefine the role and standing of a skilled chef. He proposed that, although terroir could have some deleterious effects on food, a skilled chef would be able to remove the "offending components." In his La Science du mâitre d'hotel cuisiniere (1749), he proposed methodologies to (i) search out terroir in foods and (ii) neutralize any pernicious effects it could have on the refined connoisseur (Parker).

Writing in the foreword of Menon's book, Lauréault de Foncemagne transfers the previously mentioned DuBos' theories directly into the world of food and cooking and proposes that exotic foods -- that is, food from unfamiliar territories -- can be consumed in order to compensate for climate-induced deficiencies.

For terroir and the cooking profession then, a symbiotic relationship had developed: "... as terroir's status slowly changed, it helped to expand and legitimize the profession of the 18th-century chef in new ways. Terroir created the need for a specialist who could transfer the dangerous and lowly terrestrial components, using art and science to marry flavors and create a safe, enjoyable culinary experience." So the chef was elevated because he could remove the deleterious elements from terroir and terroir was now not so dangerous because it could be controlled by that skilled chef in your employ.

The individuals mentioned in the foregoing contributed significantly to the 18th century revitalization of the concept of terroir but those efforts are surpassed by the work of Rousseau in the decades leading up to the revolution.

By Maurice Quentin de La Tour - Unknown,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org
/w/index.php?curid=24158

According to Parker, Rousseau:

• Promoted the superiority of terroir to the reading public as well as well-known historical figures such as Robespierre and Marie-Antoinette
• Kindled a spirit of rural renewal in his readers by glamorizing provincial living
• Reinforced a positive role for terroir in culinary culture.

"... an unmistakeable transformation in culinary culture with respect to terroir took place in the eighteenth century and some of that change undoubtedly owes to Rousseau's influence (Parker)."

I will complete the 18th-century resurgence of the concept of terroir in my next post.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme