May 8, 2006
Look to the New World for Terroir
I think I’ve finally concluded that in the Old World (Europe) "Terroir" is really "tradition". The European wines from different appellations, large and small, that you drink tend to have a consistent and particular characteristic not because the climate and soil from that appellation force upon the wine a particular character, but because there are a set of traditional winemaking and grape growing techniques in an area that lead the wines in a particular direction. Those traditions relate to how…