Where grapes grow in world. If climate and latitude alone determined where vines grew, life would be so much simpler. You would simply look at the sunshine, the temperature, the rainfall and the chance of frost, and work out what to plant where. Hey presto: great wine, every time. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. Weather is only one of many factors that determine the quality and style of wine. When considering where grapes grow, it’s worth remembering that European vineyards were seldom planted after close analysis of the weather or the soil. If by chance they turned out to be great vineyards, then people tried to work out why. It’s been a long process of discovery, and it’s not over yet.

Where grapes grow in world

Vineyard dirt is receiving intense study from winemakers everywhere. Even those few who seem perversely determined to eradicate all traces of terroir in their wines by overripeness, massive extraction and as much manipulation as possible in the winery (added tannins, added acidity, added colour) still take pride in having good or even great terroir. Terroir has swung back into fashion, big time. In Bordeaux, top châteaux divide their parcels of vines ever more precisely according to which bits ripen together – a parcel might be one hectare, or half a row; there’s really no limit to how precise you can be – and then redesign their wineries to suit, with one vat, appropriately sized, for each parcel.

Sneak Knifes: All the riches of olden times

Suddenly they’re able to ferment individual parcels that have never before been fermented separately, and the effect on the wine, in terms of precision and accuracy, can be dramatic. Accuracy in the wine comes from accuracy in the winery, which comes directly from accuracy in the vineyard – via, it has to be said, a substantial investment budget.

Yet as we’re seeing in Champagne, while it wrestles with the complexities of bringing into the appellation those bits of land judged to be at least as good as those already in it, analyzing terroir is one thing. Proving that one terroir is better or worse than another is quite another, though it provides a gratifying amount of work for m’learned friends, since these matters always seem to end up in court teritory.

If it weren’t for the water, there wouldn’t be any wine here. The Finger Lakes in New York State have a relatively small surface area but are extremely deep and seldom freeze in winter, so act as a very efficient heat store. Vineyards on the surrounding hillsides are protected against extreme winter temperatures and late spring frosts, and enjoy milder autumns than areas further away.

Winemakers have been studying Burgundy’s Côte d’Or for years, but we still don’t know precisely what it is about this little stretch of French vineyard that produces such marvellous Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. And if people can’t agree on that, it’s not surprising that they also can’t agree on which of the attributes of the Côte d’Or you should try to imitate if you want to make great Pinot elsewhere, or how closely you should imitate them. Should you find somewhere that mimics the Burgundian climate? Or is the climate in fact a disadvantage? If you think that, then you’ll seek somewhere warmer and drier. Should you be trying to copy the soil? And if so, should you be looking at its structure, its mineral content, or what?
Vineyard dirt is receiving intense study from winemakers everywhere. Even those few who seem perversely determined to eradicate all traces of terroir in their wines by overripeness, massive extraction and as much manipulation as possible in the winery (added tannins, added acidity, added colour) still take pride in having good or even great terroir. Terroir has swung back into fashion, big time. In Bordeaux, top châteaux divide their parcels of vines ever more precisely according to which bits ripen together – a parcel might be one hectare, or half a row; there’s really no limit to how precise you can be – and then redesign their wineries to suit, with one vat, appropriately sized, for each parcel. Suddenly they’re able to ferment individual parcels that have never before been fermented separately, and the effect on the wine, in terms of precision and accuracy, can be dramatic. Accuracy in the wine comes from accuracy in the winery, which comes directly from accuracy in the vineyard – via, it has to be said, a substantial investment budget.
Yet as we’re seeing in Champagne, while it wrestles with the complexities of bringing into the appellation those bits of land judged to be at least as good as those already in it, analyzing terroir is one thing. Proving that one terroir is better or worse than another is quite another, though it provides a gratifying amount of work for m’learned friends, since these matters always seem to end up in court.

This is still a relatively poorly understood concept – but it is important to realize that ‘terroir’ does not mean ‘soil’. The terroir of a vineyard is the sum of all its parts: its geology, its climate, its topology, its water-holding ability and the amount of sun it receives, and the effect of man. Without human intervention there wouldn’t be vineyards in the first place. So the soil, both topsoil and subsoil, is important, as are the mineral components of the soil. How fertile or infertile it is, and its depth and structure, which affects how well or poorly drained it is, are also factors.

Altitude, steepness of slope and exposure to the sun all matter, as does the mesoclimate, or climate particular to that vineyard. From the French point of view (and it is most of all a French concept), it is the terroir that makes each vineyard different. It underpins the Appellation Contrôlée system not least because, as the underlying factor behind wine quality and style, it should show in the wine no matter who the winemaker is or what he or she does to the wine. Winemakers come and go; the terroir remains.

However, good viticulture and winemaking can permit the expression of the terroir while bad viticulture and winemaking can mask it. And since good vineyard practice can mean installing drainage where necessary, thereby changing the soil’s character, and since good winemaking in northern Europe does not exclude chaptalization (the addition of sugar before or during fermentation to increase a wine’s alcoholic strength; see here), growers are in practice not absolute slaves to what their terroir dictates.