One cannot talk about wine in any depth without discussing terroir. Many people, including myself in the beginning, think that terroir just refers to soil. Terra = earth = terroir. But this is not the case. Over the past several years of study, I have come to understand that terroir is a short hand term for the all factors comprising the environment in which a grape grows and ripens. It is about the climate, the winds, the amount of sunlight, the local trees and bushes and even mushrooms, the change in temperatures from day to night (“diurnal range”), the amount of water that gets to the roots, and so forth.
When you hear that a wine expresses its “terroir,” what does that mean exactly? It means that you should be able to taste certain characteristics of its home if it is well-made and carefully handled. The difference between a small-batch hand-made wine and a mass-produced wine is that terroir-driven wines are often planted to challenging soils and terrains and climates in order to stress the vines a bit. This encourages the vine to concentrate more energy and therefore more flavors and body into the grapes, allowing the winemaker to produce more concentrated wines with nuance and complexity. In contrast, mass-produced wines are often made from vines planted on flatter, more fertile soils. They are farmed with more fertilizer and irrigation to create a uniform quality that ensures a predictable character that is often fruity, slightly sweet, and high alcohol with lower tannins and acids. Mass-produced wines lack the layers of flavors and aromas that often emerge from a terroir-driven wine and therefore, also lack distinction.
So, what makes a wine more complex and interesting? Here are some questions to think about. When you taste a wine, do you feel like it is balanced? Is there some sourness (“raciness” or “acid” or “mouthwatering crispness”)? Are there flavor characteristics that balance out the acidity? Fruit and floral aromas, minerals – which can often give wine a faint saltiness. Is there herbaceousness? Does the wine dry out the surfaces of your mouth? If so, is it a velvety sensation or a grippy, rougher one? Is there any sweetness in the wine? Does it feel a bit hot on your palate in a way that you know you are drinking alcohol? Is that in balance with the other sensations or does it overwhelm the wine? Is the taste after the swallow pleasant or do you detect a lingering bitterness? If so, is the bitterness a welcome sensation? And more importantly, does it please your palate?
Each of these questions potentially addresses a different aspect of terroir. If you detect acidity, it could very well be underripe grapes. But it could also indicate cool nights that enhance the development of acids in the grape, which is a desirable trait. If you taste some sugars, it could be that it is a low alcohol wine in which the fermentation was stopped to preserve some sugar, or it could mean that was made with grapes that received a great deal of warmth and sunlight and were able to (over)ripen to a great degree. If you taste minerality, it could be that the vines are from a cool climate on rocky slopes with a certain type of geology. It may also mean it is a coastal wine that somehow expresses the wet stones and salty breezes of its home. The taste and feel the tannins can indicate, that the grape is either under-, perfectly or over-ripe. If the grapes are very ripe, then the alcohol level will be high, and therefore, even for a high tannin and high acid wine, it will taste round and “hot”. If you detect the alcohol level right away, you know it is unbalanced. So each aspect of a wine can have multiple explanations. But you can learn a great deal about it if you take a minute to savor all the sensations and smells and tastes it imparts. And you can decide whether this wine has individual character and interest or if it is made to cater to the need that certain markets, and palates, have for consistency.
Terroir – more than just soils
