A forum themed around "Terroir, the Best Winemaker" was held at Yantai International Exposition Center on June 28, as a part of the 12th International Wine Exposition.

Six wine experts from across the world gathered in Yantai, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province, to share their interpretations about the important role that terroir plays in making vintage wine.

Regina Vanderlinde, president of the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), delivered a speech themed with "Terroir, the Vision of the OIV", which presented the body's vision for the future of the industry as well as presenting the definition of the five key elements of terroir.

"Terroir is much more important than anything else for quality wines and it is not immutable," she said.

"With the development of technologies, the term will contain more and more things in addition to soil, climate and geography," Vanderlinde added.

Juliette Couderc, technical director of Penglai Chateau Lafite, highlighted the traits of Penglai terroir. She said the unique soil in Penglai helped the areas make Chinese best wine.

Li Jiming, the chief engineer of Changyu Wine Group, explained the characteristics of typical producing regions in China and the Changyu vineyard.

Experts say that "terrific terroir" makes all the difference and is the key to making quality wine. Yantai, a coastal city, lies on the latitudes between 36 and 38 degrees and boasts sand, sun and sea for ideal wine producing conditions.

Fang Yulin, president of the College of Wine at Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Denise Cosentino, chief winemaker of Junding Chateau and Zhan Jicheng, professor at China Agricultural University, also presented their research on the French term "terroir" .

A forum themed on the central winemaking concept of terroir is held at Yantai International Exposition Center on June 28. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Regina Vanderlinde, president of the OIV, delivers a speech at the forum about terroir. [Photo/jiaodong.net]

Li Jiming, chief engineer of Changyu Wine Group, explains the characteristics of typical producing regions in China and the Changyu vineyard at the forum. [Photo/jiaodong.net]