A wonderful letter to the editor of the Times Literary Supplement from Malcolm Gluck:

“An apple from Elgin in the Cape will taste different from the same grown in the Loire.  But a Sauvignon blanc from both places can, if the makers so desire, be indistinguishable.  Ergo, terroir in a finished wine is a fiction.  It is a ploy dreamed up by the French and maintained by producers, merchants and wine writers to serve the shallow ends of marketing and mystification.”

Quite a boost for Elgin, to be equated with the Loire in a Sauvignon blanc context, nonetheless.  Let’s hope the Sauvignon blanc Interest Group [SbIG] notice.