4 minute read
NEW BUZZ
Terroir has become a buzz word in wine
Exploring terroir: one vineyard, three winemakers: four vineyards one winemaker.
Almost a holy grail for some winemakers. The concept that the flavour of something grown in a particular place - a few special rows, a block, a vineyard or even a subregion - can express the unique character of that place.
Sceptics, of course, often say terroir just a marketing ploy.
In the prestigious Cote d’Or in Burgundy, France, they will tell you that wine is the grapes’ way of expressing the soil or terroir. It’s similar in the steep Mosel vineyards in Germany where wines from a certain vineyard can have a consistent character, subtly different from that from a nearby vineyard with a different soil, slope or aspect. It’s certainly something I’ve experienced tasting wine there.
To express terroir successfully requires sensitive viticulture and winemaking. Pinot noir
and riesling (the varieties in Burgundy and the Mosel respectively) are probably the most responsive to revealing subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences, depending on their soils, exposure, vineyard and, increasingly, the vineyard microflora. Of course it helps enormously if crops are kept low, the vines are old so their roots go deep into the soil and vineyards are farmed organically or biodynamically so the soil fungi and other microbes are healthy and can have an input. Often a pied de cuve, a small fermentation started in the vineyard a week or so before harvest to capture and propagate the wild vineyard yeast, is used instead of commercial yeast or even wild yeast floating round the winery. It’s sometimes described as the equivalent of a sourdough starter in bread making.
But then there’s the winemaking decisions. Does the winemaker include some stems in the ferment as well as the grapes? How long and at what temperature does the ferment continue and how long do the skins and wine remain in contact? What is the oak regime? How long does it stay in barrels, large or small, old or new, the degree of toast or char inside them? How, if at all, is it fined or filtered?
Needless to say, it’s usually the more expensive wines, those handled more carefully and produced in smaller quantities that go into single vineyard labels.
Being intrigued by all this, I organised a tasting for the Wine Federation of Otago, a long-standing group of wine enthusiasts and collectors, to see if we could distinguish particular characteristics of individual vineyards. The wines were served blind. We started with Cloudy Bay’s two pinot noirs, 2019 from the Wairau Valley in Marlborough and the 2017 Te Wahi from the Cromwell basin in Central Otago. This was followed by three 2017 pinots from the organic, closeplanted, 30-year old Clayvin Vineyard in Marlborough by three different winemakers, Giesen, Fromm and Te Whare Ra; then seven single vineyard 2019 wines made by two different winemakers in Central Otago, Gibbston Valley (organic) and Rockburn (not organic). Three of these seven came from the Gibbston subregion, two from Bendigo and two from other parts of the Cromwell Basin.
So what did we find?
It was easy to identify the Cloudy Bay wines, the red fruits and tanginess of the Marlborough, and the darker fruits and brooding nervosity of the Central. However, the Te Wahi at $120 was more than twice the price of the Marlborough wine and two years older, so were we really comparing like with like?
Eagerly we went on to the Clayvin wines. Although all excellent, each was quite different. Prices varied between about $60 and $90.
Giesen’s was a statement wine oozing dark fruit, spicy oak with an almost grainy texture. Te Whare Ra’s was almost floral, charming, harmonious and textural, and very drinkable, while Fromm’s was bigger and more structured, slightly funky with darker flavours, texture and complexity.
For us, winemaking styles obscured the specific vineyard character, but perhaps that was because we were not comparing them with wines by the same makers from other vineyards to see if there was a commonality between the Clayvin ones. An idea for another tasting sometime.
The Central Otago wines seemed to have more in common even though they came from different subregions. In good vintages like 2019 Gibbston, the coolest area, can produce the best fruit. Bendigo, often described as the hottest region, nevertheless has some higher, cooler vineyards such as School House.
Soils are different too, sandy loams, silt over glacial outwash gravels, and varying amounts of schist, as well as different aspects, altitudes and gradients.
The Central wines varied between $65 and $100.
Tasters could mostly distinguish between the Gibbston and the Cromwell Basin wines, but opinions were divided as to which was which!
On revisiting the wines after the labels were revealed, those from Gibbston - Rockburn Eight Barrels and Gibbston Valley Glenlee and Le Maître, did seem more floral, while the Bendigo wines, Gibbston Valley China Terrace and School House, seemed to have darker fruit. Rockburn’s Eleven Barrels from the Parkburn vineyard on the Wanaka road was perhaps most characteristic of Central - fragrant, dark cherry fruit, vibrant and juicy, perhaps because of less new oak. Rockburn’s The Art from Bannockburn showed more red fruits, mineral and spicy oak.
But was this a matter of the oft-repeated saying - a glance at a label is worth 30 years of experience?
We’ve got a long way to go before we get to the stage of the Cote d’Or or Mosel, one taster remarked. However, checking how things are going and testing our palates is hugely enjoyable. We’ll do it again sometime!
