Food & Drink

What’s in a name?

It’s very satisfying when a customer announces they don’t like something – chardonnay or even French wine, for example – then later leaves with a bottle of French chardonnay! Often this follows a discussion about ‘terroir’, the French word used to describe every aspect of the environment in which grapes are grown. The same name does not equal the same wine...

‘Terroir’ literally means ‘land’, but in wine terms a great deal more besides. Soil is certainly vital – vines usually produce the best grapes when they struggle to survive, sending long, searching roots to find limited water and barely adequate nutrition. They grow best on loam, clay, and on sandy or volcanic soil. So the reason the vine you planted five years ago has never fruited, is probably because you treat it too well!

Sunshine and warmth are important, though the combination is not always obvious – you can grow great malbec high in the Andes because although there’s little warmth, there’s lots of sunshine. Vines can therefore be planted in areas of more or less sun as required. Chablis is a hill village in France that grows chardonnay (though it’s never called chardonnay, just Chablis). Exactly where on the hill, grapes are planted determines whether they will make Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru or Grand Cru wines – the prices of which vary enormously. The parts of the hill with the best exposure to sun, best drainage and the right soil type are the most valuable.

Proximity to water is frequently a decisive factor in the quality of wine. Large bodies of water moderate temperatures around them, allowing grapes to ripen evenly over a longer time, which is a very good thing (consider sea-swimming in October – water warms slowly during summer and releases the warmth slowly when the weather cools).

Moisture and humidity encourage diseases and pests – especially moulds. Yet the world’s finest dessert wines are made by encouraging botrytis cinerea, a mould that depletes the water in grapes, intensifying the flavours. This requires cool, misty mornings and warm, sunny afternoons – a great example of how tricky ‘terroir’ can be.

Of course, there’s more to this, but in simple terms if the right grapes are grown in exactly the right environment, the result is perfectly ripened grapes and great wine. Naturally, few places are perfect, so the resulting wines vary! A chardonnay grown in French limestone soil will taste very different to one grown in Chile on volcanic soil. Other factors such as wine-making techniques (e.g. barrel ageing) are also very significant, but I’m afraid I’m out of space. The bottom line? The more wines you sample, the more you will properly understand the variety available!

Dave Anning SW Bottle Shop

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