While terroir may not be hard science, there’s definitely something going on. In all likelihood, there’s some trace element or overlooked critter involved in the creation & fermentation of the cheese- and many other foods- that cheese makers elsewhere haven’t accounted for.There has to be someone else who makes an identical cheese. I don't buy into Europe's magic land voodoo for one second. Yes the soil affects the plants, yes the plants affect the cows. But the soil and the plants ca both be duplicated. There's nothing special about them.
And it doesn’t necessarily take much.
Hell, it might even be a factor the cheese makers in the protected region are unaware of, like a particular trace mineral found in the caves where cheeses are ripened, or a slight evolutionary divergence in the bacteria, molds, mites & yeasts used to make the cheeses.