Can terroir be objectively evaluated?

Terroir.

A word to say the least mythical, a term among the most fashionable in the world of wine, and in many cases even used a little haphazardly, sometimes to get out of a hindrance , others referring to territories for which something else should be bothered.

Basically, "an area in which a series of factors such as natural, physical and chemical conditions, associated with the climate and the soil, allow the creation of wines that can be identified through the unique characteristics of their territoriality".

Therefore a sort of place of great value and potential within which to produce wine.

Over the centuries, the recognition of the status of "great terroir" to a certain geographical area, whether large or small - has almost always been posthumous, or rather consequent to the fact that unanimously recognized bottles were produced inside it. of great quality.

A bit like - to make a distant but at the same time close comparison - the classification of some seismic areas in Italy: areas far from faults and therefore apparently free from tectonic phenomena that became high risk when an important earthquake occurred.

Of course, viticulture bases its roots on solid scientific bases, and there are parameters that allow us to understand the reasons that determine significant fluctuations in the quality of wines within vineyards also very close to each other, but there is no criterion - objective and numerically assessable - for evaluate in advance the goodness of a specific vineyard and therefore its theoretical potential.

Or rather, I didn't know it existed, until some time ago I heard about the BIGOT index.

But what is it, in detail?

It’s an indicator that takes the name of its "inventor", the Friulian agronomist Giovanni Bigot, and that comes from the numerical analysis of nine parameters (agronomic and viticultural) universally recognized as determining factors for production of quality wines.

Providing - on a scale from 0 to 100 - a value indicating the potential - and therefore the value - of a given vineyard.

This index, which implicitly starts from the assumption of the centrality of the vineyard in determining the quality of a wine, responds to a need strongly felt by wineries, namely that of knowing in detail the value of their vineyards.

With the objective of pre-directing one's choices correctly and constantly encreasing the quality of the vineyards themselves, through a series of initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency of the potential that nature has made available.

Already the observation that important figures as Angelo Gaja was among the main supporters of the project (also partially contributing to finance it in the study and research phases) makes us glimpse its value, and with it the implications that a use virtuous of this analysis - through constant and iterative monitoring - could determine in the coming years.

In any case, focusing attention on the vineyard, but more generally on the work and activities to be carried out in the vineyard, can only be a positive effect for the world of wine, for too many years almost more interested in the container (in terms of packaging, storytelling and advertising) than to the effective content.

The saying "wine is made in the vineyard and not in the cellar" (but I would also add outside the cellar) is always relevant, especially in a historical moment in which the climate changes underway – almost inevitable and almost certainly irreversible - require everyone to make choices and decisions that will affect the future and the existence of entire wine regions, some even of great interest and value.