Terroir - Things We Learn While Traveling #3

Terroir

“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”

Galileo Galilei

Terroir - The French have a great word called "Terroir". Terroir can be very loosely translated as "a sense of place," The French believe that a wine is greatly affected by goût de terroirs or by the physical characteristics and environment where the grapes are grown, which is of course, true. They have taken this belief and developed it into an art. We recently returned from a trip to the Bordeaux region of France where one acre of wine growing quality land sells for about €16,000,000 or just a little under $17,000,000. Several different wines from nearly the exact same spot can have very different characteristics. Higher vineyards may catch more of the morning sun while lower vineyards may have more volcanic elements in the soil. Each vineyard is different.

(French pronunciation: Tere-wa [tɛʁwaʁ] from terre, "land"). These special characteristics that include geography, geology, climate, interaction with plant genetics, and many other factors make each wine unique. Instead of merely focusing on the grapes themselves, much care and consideration is also afforded to these contributing factors in the production of world class wines. We try to incorporate goût de terroirs in our beauty services.

We realize that you have many different choices when it comes to salons, spas and beauty schools in Anchorage. We do not take it lightly that you choose MetrOasis to provide your beauty services to you. This is why terroir is so very important to us. This is one of the reasons that we are very different from the rest.

We are not merely trying to make you look good, we want you to also FEEL good. This is why we go to all the effort to provide extras that make your services memorable. When you first arrive, you'll pass through a glassed portion of the building with wall to wall plants instead of just carpet, sheetrock and wood. You can begin to feel yourself relax even before you reach our front door.

As you pass through our front door you are greeted by an spectacular antique cabinet from France which was created in the early 1600s, a unique antler chair and other interesting things to see. You can check out our beautiful butterfly collection or marvel at our megalodon tooth collection. There's a very good chance that you'll see Sue's smiling face at the front desk, that you'll hear world music and you'll be offered a complimentary espresso drink, a hot chocolate, coffee, tea or a soft drink.

You can check out our full sized knight and read about the knight's code and about our philosophy of living, doing business customer service. All of these elements make the experience of getting your hair cut, having a highlight, a facial, or whatever other services you have done more enjoyable. This is our version of terroir. Instead of only focusing on the actual service, we also focus on all of the elements surrounding your service which we feel makes it more memorable and enjoyable. We hope you agree.