Evaluating Grain Terroir in Whiskey Production

The concept of terroir has expanded from French viticulture into other beverage and food sectors, including the whiskey industry. While the perception of terroir is heavily rooted in a consumer perception of the quality of the product as influenced through place, story-telling and marketing, terroir from a scientific perspective looks at the potential of measurable inputs to influence the final product. The aim of this review is to evaluate the current research on the interactions of the three major contributors to terroir: genetics, crop management and environment, in grains used for whiskey production, as well as their influence on potential flavor. There is evidence that genetics can influence terroir across all four major grains that are commonly fermented and distilled into whiskeys. Environment strongly influences grain composition and potential flavor outcomes; however, annual weather variation must be distinguished from terroir, which implies place-associated effects that are sufficiently consistent across growing seasons to contribute to recognizable product characteristics. Isolating location from environment, management and genetics proved to be very challenging in the grains research reviewed. Future work should focus on grain traits associated with desirable outcomes as well as evaluating if those differences are consistently detectable after aging.