How to Decode Buzzwords on Your Wine Bottle, Like ‘Terroir-Driven’ and ‘Sustainable’

Buzzwords like “terroir-driven” and “sustainable” have long been used to capture consumers’ attention, especially in wine. 

However, a lack of concrete definitions surrounding these terms has led to confusion and misinformation among drinkers and producers. We asked four industry professionals to weigh in on how helpful or hurtful wine buzzwords can be and had them break down the meanings behind some of the industry’s most used (or overused) phrases.

Wine buzzwords: Helpful or hurtful?

Brooklyn-based wine journalist Eliza Dumais finds that buzzwords can provide a solid entry point to particular facets of the industry, but will only bring a consumer so far. 

“For folks who sincerely adopt an interest in wine, buzzwords are like gateway terms,” she says. “They can be easy, topical entry points that give way to a more personal and nuanced vocabulary.”  

John McCarroll, Brooklyn-based wine salesman and co-founder of the podcast, Disgorgeous, says that buzzwords can often flatten the context in wine. “They are very helpful for consumers who don’t really want to engage with wine or get into it,” he says. “But for people who know what they want, they are fairly useless in the part of what makes wine fun and interesting.” 

Certain buzzwords —  like sustainability, terroir, low sulfur, and natural wine — are used more frequently than others. But rather than overuse, the key problem with these terms is their lack of set definition, as well as the subjective nature surrounding their meanings. 

Shannon Coursey, executive vice president of sales and marketing for wine importer Wilson Daniels, uses “terroir-driven” as a key example of a buzzword that can become meaningless. Coursey notes that while the concept is very real, due to lack of definitive regulations around the term, anyone can call their wines as such, regardless of the actual decisions made in both the vineyard and the cellar.  

McCarroll finds the same issues with the term “sustainable.” 

“Sustainability should be the most important aspect of wine production today, though as it is currently used, it means less than nothing,” he says. “[It’s] a vague commitment to better agriculture or simply a few beehives on a property.” 

McCarroll believes that producers who are serious about the environment can point generally to more concrete examples of their commitment to bettering the environment. Coursey agrees, nothing that sustainability is increasingly becoming an umbrella term. 

“If it’s something a consumer cares about, they should dive deeper into what makes a particular wine sustainable,” she says. 

The same issues ring true for terms like low-sulfur and natural wine. “Low- to no-sulfur winemaking is absolutely the most interesting space in winemaking right now, but it feels like a spectrum,” says McCarroll. 

Jill Mott, wine director at The Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel in New York City, agrees. “I definitely think [low sulfur] is the most interesting place in wine right now, however, I’ve felt that way for 15 years,” she says. Mott expands on the notion of the spectrum of natural and low-sulfur winemaking, stating that sulfur additions — even those on the lower side of things — can vary.

Mott says that many conventional winemakers will use little to no sulfur additions on a cuvée or two so as to jump on the “natural wine” bandwagon, though could potentially be implementing other practices (filtration, for example) that many natural winemakers wouldn’t deem true to the style. 

“When the word ‘natural’ is thrown around, it can sound incredibly sleazy,” says McCarroll “A lot of people think that natural just means ‘funky’ or ‘weird,’ which, for the record, it does not. The term natural is often lumped together or used interchangeably with words like sustainability or biodynamics, each of which are completely different concepts.

Buzzwords are subjective

Due to their lack of legal definition, a lot of interpretation comes into play with wine buzzwords.

Melissa Burr, vice president of winemaking at Stoller Family Estate, says that buzzwords ultimately hold weight when a brand behind the words walks the walk. 

“I generally do prefer my wine to be sustainable, terroir-driven, low-sulfur and natural, but I think it’s best to be suspicious of anyone who uses those buzzwords as selling points without actually engaging with the seas of complexity surrounding all those terms,” says Burr. “For example, if you’re at a wine store full of industrial schlock and there’s one bottle marked ‘natural,’ it’s safe to assume that doesn’t really mean anything.”

But buzzwords can also draw people in and make them curious about how a wine is made. 

“I’d encourage curious consumers to dig a bit deeper to get a clearer understanding of what some of these words really mean, as well as how they relate to the wine they’re drinking,” says Coursey.