In My Glass – How soil affects the taste of wine

A Soiled Reputation

BY » Trevor Burton Photography courtesy of » Trevor Burton

The controversy over “terroir”— what makes wines from different places taste so differently

Terroir is an untranslatable French word. It encompasses the environmental conditions, especially soil and climate, in which grapes are grown and that give a wine its unique flavor and aroma. The concept has been around for a long time. Back in the 14th century, Cistercian monks in Burgundy were dedicated to studying, understanding, and improving winemaking. They were the first to realize that different grapes from different vineyards in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy and sometimes even different vines from the same vineyard led to dramatically different wines.

Today, all over the world, vignerons are digging deep holes in order to discover and display precisely which soil types lie beneath the vines and to see how deeply their vine roots penetrate. The make-up of vineyard soil is of upmost importance. But there is an academic opposition. Let me quote one professor—“the common notion that vines are able to absorb minerals from the soil which are eventually transmitted to the resulting wine is nonsense. These minerals are simply not available to the plant in any absorbable way nor in any meaningful concentration.” Reading between the lines, all wine enthusiasts are phonies because they are not geology professors.

I’ve encountered this phenomenon throughout my, pre-wine, business career. Technical experts providing a detailed and accurate answer to exactly the wrong question. Oh, brother; those Cistercian monks were on to something. Those geology professors are missing the big picture. Looking for the development of terroir may be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But it’s a haystack that should be tastefully explored.

Different wines from different places taste different in what seem like predictable ways. There is a relationship between wine character and vineyard soil types. A wine grown in sandy soil will invariably taste lighter and softer than one grown in an adjacent vineyard on clay. Wines from the Côte d’Or have their own, unique characteristics. The stupendous reds of Priorat in northeast Spain are grown on very particular rock formations—proof, to me, that you could grow grapes on the moon. Priorat wines taste perceptibly distinctive.

So, when it comes to terroir and soil, here’s the dirt. Something seems to be going on. It’s been pointed out that the principal role of vineyard soils and rocks is physical rather than chemical. The exact shape, consistency, particle size, permeability and absorbency of the soil determine the crucial supply of water to the vine. That shapes how grapes ripen. There’s a school of thought that terroir may include the effects of bacteria, yeast, and other microorganisms in a vineyard and how geology might shape their presence. The idea behind microbial terroir is that the microorganisms of a vineyard are unique and affect wine character in distinct ways, making them essential components of the expression of a vineyard.

Well, that’s my rant done with. At this stage in life, finding the needle is way above my pay-grade and my interest. I’m far more interested in the vinous haystack, itself. I rejoice on the time I’ve spent in Burgundy sipping on what those limestone slopes have created. Same thing when it comes to northeast Spain and its rocky soil and its Priorat; and elsewhere, with wines from all around the world. And, as I raise my wine glass, I toast those few geology professors. What on earth were they thinking? Rock on, buddies.