In the double context of globalization and socio-ecological transition, numerous territories are in search of models of development granting a larger place in social dimension, in environment, in culture, and generally in immaterial resources. They also explore other kinds of governance based on collaboration, participation and global approach. In this regard, the mode of development constructed on the promotion of "terroir products" appears as a particularly promising way; on condition of course that the reference to the" terroir" is not a simple argument of marketing in the service of a product but the support of a true project of territory. The definition given in France by INAO and INRA and validated during the international meeting of UNESCO in 2005 meets some of the principles emphasized by the paradigm of territorial intelligence: "The terroir is a delimited geographical area defined by a human community which constructs in the course of its history a lot of distinctive cultural characteristics, collective knowledge and practices that are founded on a system of correlation between natural environment and human factors. This know-how reveals originality, confers typicalness, and allows recognition for products or services native to this space and therefore for men who live there. Terroirs are innovative areas which cannot be only assimilated with tradition". To illustrate this definition, we shall lean on the Jura Mountains in France, that are particularly rich in "products of terroir", worked out under official quality sign. We shall show how a strategy of promotion of "terroirs" in link with historical heritage and landscape can keep the population in rural areas, give perspectives to the young people and attract tourists and visitors, while reinforcing identity of territory. Operations of labellisation or geographical demarcation can be considered as revealing of the functioning of the territorial system. Solidarities and oppositions come to light better than through an audit. It confers to the analysis of these scenarios a great scientific interest. In the opposite, all these steps can lay the foundations for a shared territorial diagnosis, can gather energies, and can be the opportunity of a detailed reflection on the objectives of a socio-spatial entity.