Defines terroir as a proposed environmental influence on crop flavor and characteristics; useful as the starting point for a causal, testable account of place in whiskey.
Arnold opens the book with a basic working definition before separating soil, topography, climate, genetics, agriculture, processing, and human factors.
Terroir is a French word that describes how the flavor and characteristics of a crop (or livestock) are influenced by its environment.
PDF page 13; printed page 1
PDF page 13; printed page 1
Introduction
Freshly checked 2026-09-28 against supplied PDF 13 / printed 1 using enlarged rendered pages and sequential reading. Verification establishes faithful source representation, not independent validation of every author claim.
Operational annotation
Fresh audit: Freshly checked 2026-09-28 against supplied PDF 13 / printed 1 using enlarged rendered pages and sequential reading. Verification establishes faithful source representation, not independent validation of every author claim.
This verified definition establishes the first link in a longer evidence chain: environment may influence a crop, but later records must still show that crop identity survives handling and that any effect remains detectable after whiskey production.
Locator
PDF page 13; printed introduction page 1. Visually verified against the local source file on 2026-08-23.