Between the knowledge and power negotiation dynamics of all the actors involved (from winemakers to farmers, local authorities and other stakeholders like local cooperatives) there is a need to question if the current rural development strategies based on local food qualification schemes under Geographical Indications (GIs) are being implemented towards the extended development of the region, the local community and therefore to the full protection of wine terroir(3) on a broader sense than only origin and quality. This comes along with recent renewed interest on the notion of terroir, where discussions emerged about the preservation/re-creation of terroir on the ongoing process of history and the discussion on the extent of GIs capacity to protect terroir as history, heritage or "patrimoine."(4) Nemea (Greece) and Basto (Vinho Verde region, Portugal) are two high quality wines regions under the protection of labels of origin commonly under the framework of GIs. Recent discussions have emerged on the re-construction of local/traditional knowledge and thus on the re-construction of both regions wine terroir, that are related with challenges to the development of the regions between the preservation of localness (implicit on the protection by labels of origin) and the threats of deterritorialization.