This week, I tasted a Pinot Noir from the very north of the Burgundy region of France. It tasted very different from a normal Pinot Noir. This let me to think about terroir (pronounced Tare wahr), which is a French term that embodies the growing environment of the grapes. It encompasses everything from the soil content to the slant of the hill to the direction of the sun to the amount of fog and precipitation.
Terroir in the New World vs. the Old World
In the Old World (France and the rest of Europe), terroir is considered to be the most important determinant of a wine’s style. In the New World (United States, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Africa and other non-European countries), the grape is considered to be the most important determinant of a wine’s style.
The reality is both terroir and the grape are critical to how a wine tastes.
A number of years ago, I wrote an article about comparing a New World Pinot to an Old World Pinot. In the article, I talked about how different the two wines tasted.
The Components of Terroir
Wine Folly introduces us to four components:
- Climate: “Wine grapes from warmer climates generate higher sugar levels (which produce higher alcohol wines), whereas cooler climate wine grapes generally have lower sugar levels and retain more acidity.”
- Soil: “South Africa is marked by 50 million year old granitic soils. Granite is known for its heat retention and the quality of reducing acidity in high acid wine grapes.”
- Terrain: “Mendoza, Argentina has vineyards around 4,000 feet above sea level. The high elevation gives Malbec heightened acidity due to cool nighttime temperatures.”
- Tradition: “Traditional winemaking (and vineyard growing) techniques can also contribute to a wine’s terroir. Even though tradition is a human interaction, ancient winemaking methods tend to be highly dependent on the region’s climate, soil and terrain.”
Have you done any teroir-tasting comparisons? What did you discover?
