What is Wine?
I’ve been wondering what part of the wine world I should explore for my first blog post. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to start at the very beginning: what wine is and what makes it such a special drink.
Simply put, wine is an alcoholic beverage usually made from fermented grapes. However, it can be made from other fruit or crops like rice. I believe this definition leaves a bit to be desired; it misses everything that makes wine special. In particular it misses the fundamental idea that underpins wine, that of terroir.
Terroir
Terroir is a French word that has no precise translation. Perhaps this is why it drags with it it’s fair share of controversy. Generally, terroir is seen to encompass all of the unique environmental factors present in the vineyard, the natural growing environment. This includes (but is not limited to) everything from climate to underlying geology to the organisms living in the soils. What it’s not is an invention by the French to reinforce the superiority of their own wines as we’ve been led to believe in the UK! While terroir is most known for its use in the wine world, it is a concept relevant to many artisan crops like coffee, tea and agave.
The controversy surrounding terroir starts when trying to work out where terroir ends and the other factors that influence a wine start. Many argue that traditional winemaking techniques are part of terroir, the use of oak and lees ageing in Burgundy for example. Others argue that winemaking techniques dilute the impact of terroir on a wine.
The Primacy of Place
The real question with terroir is the impact it has on wine. Many argue that it is the single most important influence on shaping the character of a wine. This is the idea of ‘the primacy of place’. There are lots of elements that make up the natural growing environment. This means the area of land that is united by having the same unique combination of elements is small. There may be several unique terroirs in your garden. It means a single vineyard site will have multiple different terroirs. Theoretically, each of these would make a wine that is different from each other, even when using the same grape. Furthermore, each of the terroir is different from every other terroir in the world, so each wine will be unique. In reality, wines are made from a single terroir very rarely. However, the concept applies to larger geographical areas as well as they will share some parts of the natural environment. This can range from a single estate wine to a town or village to region or even national level. Ultimately, wine is an expression of a particular place, so if each place is unique then the wine will be to.
Not all terroirs are created equal. Each grape variety and style of wine has their own optimum conditions needed to produce the best wine possible. Therefore, some terroirs are preferred over others. In this way terroir can influence what grapes are grown and what style of wine is made. For example, Chapel Down (based in Tenterden, Kent) is the UK’s largest winemaker. The top of Chapel Down’s range is their Kit’s Coty wines; made from grapes from a 95-acre estate called Kit’s Coty. Their best vineyard sites are on the chalk, south facing slopes of the North Downs and Kit’s Coty is the best of these. Across this site there are lots of subtly different terroirs. This results in two blocks of vines on the site producing grapes that are better than all the others. It’s only these grapes that go into making Chapel Down’s Kit’s Coty wines. The best grapes from the best terroir making the best wines. Terroir and ‘the primacy of place’ tells us that the wines produced here are completely unique to the two blocks in this site, they couldn’t be exactly reproduced anywhere else in the world.
Can I Taste It?
Some elements of terroir are easily identifiable in wines. Take climate for example. In the UK, 3 of our 4 most grown grape varieties are the three noble grapes of Champagne – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. There is a small difference in climate between the South East of England and Champagne. The UK is further north and has a maritime climate compared to Champagne’s continental climate. The result is a cooler growing season and less intense heat. Consequently, English and Welsh sparkling wines will have a higher natural acidity making them fresher and slower at developing savoury flavours. Even when using the same grapes, grown in similar soils and with a similar climate the wines will be different. They will be similar, possibly very similar, but not the same.
Other elements of terroir are much harder, if not impossible, to identify. The types of plants growing around the vines and the microorganisms in the soil are all encompassed in terroir; as yet no scientist has found a direct connection between them and flavour compounds in wine. Even the impact of underlying geology of a vineyard, often the subject of much mystery and romance, is contentious. A word used frequently in tasting notes is ‘minerality’ along with terms similar in nature like ‘flinty’ or ‘volcanic’. Science has proven that there is no direct connection to between minerals and the flavours described like this in wine. ‘Minerality’ then is not the literal tastes of minerals that have made the way from soil to glass.
In summary, terroir is an important component in winemaking and while there are questions around the extent terroir can influence a wine’s character and flavour, it definitely has some impact. The concept of terroir is why so much emphasis is put on selecting the right location for a vineyard. Remember good terroir makes good wine, great terroir makes great wine!
The reason I’ve started with terroir is because it is one of the core foundations of the wine world. By understanding what it is, you can start to understand why certain grapes are grown and winemaking techniques are used. Terroir is also the reason for the appellation systems used all over the world to provide geographical indicators of quality.
What’s Next?
I thought I’d take the opportunity to mention a few of the things I’m planning for this blog. Hopefully I can convince you to stick around!
Tasting notes on individual wines will be kept to my Instagram account; it’s linked to this website. On this blog I’d like to go into a bit more detail and depth with wines and where they come from. I will be doing a series of regional ‘deep dives’ where I discuss what makes the wines of a region special. I will do a summary of any vineyards I visit, complete with tasting notes for some of each producers’ wines. I already have a couple of visits lined up once things start returning to normal. I’ve also got a piece on how to taste wines in the works (with a video!) and I’m going to take a look at the different appellation systems in place all over the wine world. It’s these that tend to lead to the most confusion on wine labels, so demystifying them is a key step towards helping you enjoy and understand your wine more!
Comments