Typicity

Typicity is a term in wine tasting used to describe the degree to which a wine reflects its origins, and thus demonstrates the signature characteristics of the area where it was produced, its mode of production, or its parent grape, e.g. how much a merlot wine “tastes like a merlot”. The term is used analogously for other foodstuffs, such as meat and dairy products.

Typicity derives from both historical precedent and a modern consensus on how a certain wine should “taste”. It is a straightforward concept but has controversial ramifications. For example, whether or not a particular area produces wines with typicity can be debatable, and especially controversial are the factors that may give rise to such typicity. The factors probably involve vineyard bedrock, soils and climate, together with the local viticultural and winemaking traditions, and vintage variations, but their relative importance will vary and can be much argued. The extent to which such factors are encompassed by the term terroir is an especially charged issue.

Lack of typicity may not always detract from a wine's appeal. For example, the average Bordeaux red wine is a mix of grape varieties: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot (and possibly, in much smaller proportions, malbec and/or petite verdot). Rainstorms in early Fall ruined most of the 1964 vintage for most communes of the region. In Pomerol and St Emilion, however, the majority grape is the earlier-ripening merlot variety and most of the harvest was completed before the precipitation, so wines from these areas were successful, yet not "typical" for "1964 Bordeaux". A "typical" 1964 wine from Pauillac, however, would be expected to have less color and flavor than what is considered "typical" for that appellation from a normal vintage.

In some countries, such as Austria, typicity is used as part of a qualitative hierarchy that takes into consideration soil, climate and vintage. Austrian "Qualitatswein" (literally "quality wine") is tested for typicity, with the classification printed on the wine label. Typicity as a measure of quality can be considered a subjective and unreliable way to classify wine, opening the door to elitism with what has been criticized by some as "viticultural racism".

The modern tendency towards "globalization" of viticulture methods and winemaking techniques in the decades forming the Millennial transition has tended to minimize the characteristics that formerly made typicity of appellations and vintages easier to distinguish.

However, none of this controversy detracts from the value of the term typicity as a starting point for a discussion of wine.

French "typicité", Italian "tipicità"