Some thoughts on Terroir

On the Importance of Terroir

Perhaps no topic in the wine world is as controversial as the importance of Terroir. On one end of the spectrum, some argue that certain varietals can only be made in a “correct” way in certain areas. At the other end, some believe that talented winemakers can make great wines almost anywhere you can grow grapes.

My beliefs are as follows:

1. Terroir is clearly important.
2. Terroir includes things like weather (temperature, rain and wind), drainage, soil composition, and grade.
3. Terroir changes over time (weather changes over time).
4. The exact importance of things other than weather are not well understood. We can't do a soil analysis of La Tache and say aha! This is why it's great. The precise way that soil impacts human perception of how a wine taste is not well understood.
5. Learning how to make wine in a specific area from a specific grape can take a decade or more of trial and error, even for a great winemaker.
6. Technique can trump terroir for the worse. If the winemaker harvests late and uses small new oak barrels, the wine will be a stewy, alcoholic, oaky mess.
7. Just because great wine has not been made in a specific place from a specific grape does not mean that it cannot be. It does not mean that it can either, obviously.
8. There are many microclimates that are similar to the great wine producing areas of France (and Germany). The vast majority of these have not been cultivated by great winemakers and could yield good or great wine (even if popular wisdom would teach that this is impossible) if they were cultivated by a great winemaker.
9. The classic European style (more restrained wines) can be done in many regions. The fact that it is not has no bearing on whether it can be.
10. Through the ages, wine regions have fallen in and out of favor. Styles have changed dramatically. Bordeaux, for example, is now mostly made in a New World Style. Germany used to be mostly off dry wines, then it was mostly sweet and now there is a balance between dry, off dry and sweet with sweet on the decline.
11. Styles often change for marketing reasons. This has no bearing whatsoever on what a region CAN produce. Only what it DOES produce.
    1. Robert Parker convinced the world that alcoholic fruit bombs were the bees knees. Most of Bordeaux, California and the Rhone went down this path.
    2. Germany became known for sweet wines and their production shifted towards this.
12. Great wine is made by great winemakers. If no great winemakers are making wines in a region, then the wines will not be great. That is not to say that great winemakers can make great wine in any region.
13. People who say that “you CAN only make great x in y place (as opposed to y is the only place that CURRENTLY makes great x) are misinformed. We do not have sufficient knowledge to make that statement. If anything, the rise of great wines in regions formerly thought only capable of making plonk should have taught us some humility. Some examples:
    1. I formerly thought that the Mosel could not make good pinot noir until my last visit. The winemaker just figured it out. I found out that the Mosel used to be famous for its Pinot.
    2. Some of the greatest dry Riesling in Germany is being made in the Northern Mosel. Formerly, it was believed that great dry wines could only be made in the South of Germany.
    3. The most exciting dry wine region in Germany is now the Rheinhessen. 30 years ago, if you tried to make dry wines in the Rheinhessen, people thought that you were a nut.
    4. Arguably the best pinot noir in Germany is being made in Franken. No one would have thought that this could be true 20 years ago.
    5. Rhys has proven that you can make great Burgundian style Pinot Noir in the Santa Cruz Mountain in the United States.
    6. Donkey and Goat has proven that you can make terrific Rhone wines in Northern California.
14. A rational consumer will purchase wines based on quality, price and availability. I buy and serve mostly European wines because most of the wines that I like are European. The small number of American European style wines that I like are either expensive (Rhys) and/or hard to source (Rhys, Donkey and Goat, La Clarine Farms). If more American winemakers make European style wines, I will buy them. If they don’t, I won’t.

Lyle Fass