What makes terroir unique? Wine, body techniques, and agricultural modernisation in the Shangri-La region of China

Abstract

AbstractTerroir refers to a globally circulating set of ideas about how each wine region or sub-region produces wines that are thought to be unique to that place. While the active involvement of grape-growing farmers in terroir construction has been recognised in the academic literature to some extent, there remains a gap in understanding how farmers address ever-changing situations and uncertainties as they engage in terroir creation. Drawing on fieldwork in the Shangri-La wine region of China, this paper examines processes of constructing terroir through farmers’ body techniques. It argues that farmers’ embodied flexibility and adaptability have been crucial in their navigation of the constant challenges they face, both from alterations in the socio-economic relations of agriculture in modernising China, and from a climate and terrain that is often unconducive to winemaking. In the processes of navigating these never-ending changes and challenges, farmers’ body techniques make a terroir unique.