Glossary · Culture
Terroir
French. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Definition
The claim that a place — its soil, climate, aspect and the practices grown up around them — leaves a recognisable mark on what is made there. In cider the evidence for it is stronger for cultivar and practice than for soil.
- Subject
- Culture
- Language
- French
In more detail
What can be demonstrated is that climate and season change fruit composition substantially, that cultivars behave differently in different regions, and that regional practice — keeving in Normandy, malolactic dryness in Asturias, cask maturation in Somerset — produces consistent regional character. What has not been demonstrated in cider is a direct soil-to-flavour link of the kind sometimes asserted for wine.
CiderHQ uses the word for the whole bundle of place, fruit and practice, and says which part of the bundle any particular claim rests on.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Orchard
Traditional orchard
An orchard of widely spaced standard or half-standard trees on vigorous rootstocks, with a permanent grassland floor that is grazed or mown. In the United Kingdom it is a recognised priority habitat.
Cider
Vintage
A cider or perry made wholly from the fruit of one stated harvest year, as distinct from a blend across seasons.
Law and labelling
PDO
A protected name under which every stage of production, processing and preparation must take place in the defined area, using raw materials from it. The strictest of the geographical schemes.
Fruit
Cultivar
A named clone propagated by grafting, so that every tree of it is genetically identical to the original seedling. "Variety" is used interchangeably in trade, though it has a stricter botanical meaning.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Institut Français des Productions Cidricoles (IFPC)
IFPC · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The French technical institute for cider production. The authority for the French cultivar classification families, for keeving as an industrial process, and for the pectin and nitrogen chemistry that keeving depends on.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
Servicio Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (SERIDA)
Principado de Asturias · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The Asturian regional agri-food research service, and the technical authority behind the Asturian cultivar classification and the analysis of sidra natural. SERIDA’s own site has not been opened; what CiderHQ has read is SERIDA’s varietal characterisation as republished by the Consejo Regulador of DOP Sidra de Asturias, which credits it explicitly. The Asturian measurements therefore cite the Consejo rather than SERIDA — citing the body that did the work, at a document CiderHQ has not seen, would be exactly the kind of borrowed authority this register exists to prevent.