If you ask a wine drinker to name today’s most important wine region, you are likely to get one of these familiar answers: Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Tuscany, Piedmont, Napa Valley, or Champagne.

I would argue that a far less ubiquitous region is just as important, if not more so, than all of them. It doesn’t have the quality reputation of those mentioned above, but it is the birthplace of a movement that has made an outsize impact on the current global culture of wine.