Terroir: Grapes reflect the conditions in which they are grown

If you were a reader of the Lake Wylie Pilot, you’re familiar with us, but we’re new to many readers and we’d like to introduce ourselves. In our column we talk about wine, other alcoholic beverages, and food.

A lot of our lives have been spent in the travel business. Along the way we’ve met some interesting people and have learned a few things about wine and food. One of the basic concepts of wine is an understanding of “terroir.” It’s a French term basically meaning “soil,” but it doesn’t exactly translate. It’s better explained with an example.

On our honeymoon we visited the Gstaad Valley in Switzerland. It’s a beautiful valley in the Swiss Alps. The actor David Niven (”Around the World in 80 Days”) lived there and every year they have a hot air balloon festival in his honor. We decided to take a balloon ride.

The day before, we met with the balloon pilot and over a carafe of good Swiss wine he told us what to expect. He said that the morning sun would rise over the nearby mountain crest and warm the mountains on the far side of the valley. This would cause the surrounding air to warm and rise as well. Natural formations would create a type of convection current and as the air rose it would flow down the valley. At a certain point it would cool. By launching the balloon at a certain place and time, we’d ride the current down the valley then descend somewhat and ride the cooler current back to where we started.

He was very knowledgeable of the local topography, wind currents, and weather patterns. His jargon included many details and landmarks. The next day when we took our balloon ride it went almost exactly as he’d outlined it. Of course, weather prediction and hot air ballooning are not exact sciences, and we almost landed on a cow.

A few months later we were in Sonoma in the vineyards of Fred Peterson, a renowned winemaker. As we walked through his vineyards we talked about the composition of the soils and Fred pointed out a low lying section. He said that at this time of the year you could expect early morning fog from the bay to flow into that area which would keep it cooler than the higher areas. By afternoon the fog would burn off. This made that part of the vineyard ideal for growing Sauvignon Blanc. It provided a long growing season giving the grapes time to develop complex flavors. The higher areas of the vineyard were preferable for various red grape varieties that prospered under warmer conditions.

The way that he talked about the landscape and weather was in virtually the same language and nomenclature as the hot air balloon pilot. Both men needed understanding of all the elements of their environments and how they interact, their terroir, to perform their respective crafts properly. Like all living things, grapes, to a greater or lesser degree, reflect the conditions, their “terroir” under which they’re grown.

When we travel these days there’s always a focus on food and wine. We recently returned from South America where we enjoyed some great wines in Chile and Argentina. The American dollar is doing well these days making the wines below great bargains:

▪ Nieto Senetiner – Blend Collection – Malbec, Cabernet Franc – Mendoza, Argentina – 2014 – about $15. This interesting blend of 60 percent Malbec and 40 percent Cabernet Franc has a dark garnet color. It’s spent 10 months in oak helping to give it a smooth mouthfeel. It’s full bodied with aromas and flavors of blackberry, minerals and spice. It’s long and intense and drinks like a much more expensive wine.

▪ Ruca Malen – Malbec, Reserva – Mendoza , Argentina – 2014 – about $19. This is a complex wine. It’s deep and dark in color with hues of ruby red and dark purple. It has a jammy nose of plums, red fruit and violets. It’s concentrated and powerful with velvety tannins and oak ageing that gives it hints of caramel and vanilla. The prolonged finish reveals nuances of herbs and spices.

▪ Santa Rita – Triple C – Maipo Valley, Chile – 2011 – about $35. This full bodied wine is a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carmenere. It’s inky black in color with a nose of earth and violets. It’s well structured and layered with distinctive flavors of blackberry, blueberry, chocolate, and black current, with notes of tobacco and vanilla.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Terroir: Grapes reflect the conditions in which they are grown."