Wine with Leslie: Reign of terroir - including a dark, spicy French for €9
Terroir covers not just the specific geography of where the grapes are grown, but includes the sun, the rain the soil and even the humans that interacted with the grapes
Some thoughts on ‘Terroir’ this week — the most debated subject in wine. Terroir is a French concept and the basis of French wine Appellations: it loosely translates as ‘a sense of place’. Terroir covers not just the specific geography of where the grapes are grown, but includes the sun, the rain the soil and even the humans that interacted with the grapes.
Wine writers talk a lot about soil — whether limestone, granite or clay — but grapes are greedy and also suck in light and air and the mineral content of the soil is much less important than its ability to retain or disperse moisture and even this varies in a vineyard.
