"Very good wines are produced in Chile, for example. But they can lack terroir, and terroir is what makes everything." Denise Capbern Gasqueton of Château Calon-Ségur in St Estèphe This ridiculous statement found in a Decanter Magazine story was uttered in response to the study that shows the effects of terroir are greatly overshadowed by the effects of winemaking and grapegrowing techniques. What you are seeing here is the desperate statement of someone who feels their back is against the…

It’s always nice to have your ideas validated by scientists with a "PhD" after their name. Recently I speculated that the impact of a"terroir" on a wine is most often overshadowed by the hand of the winemaker. I went on to suggest that in fact the winemaking traditions in a given region should be added to the definition of terroir if only because a region’s traditional winemaking techniques (such as using new oak, picking the grapes excessively ripe, extended maceration…

"More research is needed". This is the conclusion that journalists Jerry Adler and Tara Weingarten writing in the most recent issue of Newsweek leave their readers with in an article exploriing the impact of terroir in California vineyards…or at least the notion of terroir in the California wine industry. The article is a pretty basic rundown and serves to introduce the idea of terroir to American readers. However, the article does dispell one myth that seems too often bandied about:…

Today was one of those days you I am thrilled, rather than just happy, to be in the business I am in. I organized a meeting of a number of vintners and growers, all working in the same appellation, with a writer. They were there to explain why their appellation is really the pioneering edge of Cabernet production in Napa. That said, I had a little epiphany while sitting, enthralled, listening to their fascinating, rambling conversation on terroir, history, grapegrowing,…

Shouldn’t a region’s traditional winemaking and grapegrowing techniques also be rolled into the definition of "Terroir"? Or perhaps better put, shouldn’t the traditional wine style that is associated with a region be seen as part of the terroir. I realize this is a factor not usually part of terroir’s definition, but given the challenges underway to traditional wine styles, particularly the French types, you have to give it some thought. Currently there seems to be a battle underway between the…