> Again, English words for dirt, e.g. land, can be used for the exact same meaning. The word terroir is not elusive; rather this is just another case of upper class English speakers fetishizing French culture mixed with French cultural conceit all too eager to oblige.

I am not a native English speaker as I am French. From my knowledge of english, I don't feel like "land" would encompass the same meaning as "terroir". And I'm far from saying that the concept is french; rather than the word itself is complex. By glancing at other replies in this thread, it is closer to the Japanese word somebody else mentioned. "land" is too down to earth (pun intended) for the meaning. One case though I would consider them similar is for describing people, e.g. someone saying "I'm a pure produce of the highlands (land)!" which is similar to someone saying "Je suis un pur produit du terroir bourguignon !" (I'm a pur produce of the burgundy terroir).

As another commenter put it, the earth is maybe 25% tops of terroir.

> Italians have the exact same concept of "terra" when they explain why a little village in Umbria makes the best prosciutto (it hits the best humidity level allowing for optimal drying rate). Or why not all the land in Montalcino bear the same quality wine (mostly due to the quality of the amount of sun/shade)

Notice the difference between your examples and mines: yours are "the best of this" and "the best of that". Notice how mine are all simple foods, popular foods (popular as in populace, not as in showbiz star), unexceptional foods. Terrine is made with the offcuts of hunting game. Same for sausage. In fact, we would not say that Moët or Veuve Clicquot champagnes are terroir produces; but Beaujolais Nouveau definitely is, . Terroir is about the mix of local products and deeply cultural items, not michelin-star proscuitto. It is not about that special variety of tomatoes that only grows on a 1km² field on the north-east side of mount Vesuvio. It's about what would be done with said tomatoes.

> In fact, your entire message is basically the definition of the EU's DOC.

If you're talking about regional protections (AOP/AOC in France: Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée/Protégée), those are like, the exact opposite of terroir. Well, of terroir the true one, not the fantasized posh one from the aforementioned English people. Such protections are made to avoid consumer confusion to ensure only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region can be called Champagne, or that only dry and hard and salty cheese from the Parma region can be called Parmigiano Reggiano. There is no notion of protection in what we call terroir (but pride yes, we're french after all!).

> The idea that terroir is an elusive French concept is also incredibly Eurocentric. Im European (origin) so I only have European examples; but do you really think that advanced civilizations like the Chinese or Japanese don't have the exact same concept as "terroir"?

I was only commenting about the word itself, trying to explain the notion we encompass with it. As for other civilizations, they most definitely have. In fact, I'm pretty sure the two you mentioned go even further that us given their very strong attachment to traditions, craftmanship, and locations.

Anyways, this word is so large that we have several of the longest comments I've ever seen here on hacker news :)