What a difference a place makes. A single type of grape, planted in one region, may yield insipid, uninteresting wines. Grown somewhere else, however, the grapes can become wines that astonish and inspire.

Could this be that thing called terroir?

It is fashionable in some quarters to assail the notion of terroir as a myth, promoted by the wine industry as a handy and attractive marketing tool. Yet, to anybody who drinks a lot of different wines, as the writer Matt Kramer has pointed out, the existence and influence of terroir on wine is absolutely clear.

What is terroir? It’s the notion that the place where grapes are grown and wine is made imposes a character on that wine. The idea starts with the soil in which the vines are grown, but also encompasses the influence of the environment (that is, the microclimate), the elevation, the angle of the sun and, yes, the people who tend the vines and make the wine.

Wine lovers can cite many classic examples of the influence of terroir. First and foremost is Chablis, a white Burgundy that is made entirely of chardonnay, yet tastes completely different from other chardonnays. Despite the best efforts of winemakers, no chardonnays made elsewhere in the world can capture the character of Chablis, even though some wines are described as “Chablis-like.” (Now that’s marketing.)