Wine with Leslie: Wines from six different 'terroirs' with distinctive and unique flavours
Pic: iStock
I was asked recently to recommend a first book on wine and I suggested the World Atlas of Wine edited by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, now in its 8th edition. Geography really is the key to learning about what makes wine exciting, more specifically the ‘Terroir’ where a wine is made.
It is easy to distinguish a wine by its grape variety, and learning your grapes is still a good first step. But in order to dig a little deeper you really need to understand why Sauvignon Blanc tastes so different in Marlborough in New Zealand from how it tastes in the Casablanca Valley in Chile to how it tastes in the Loire. Dig a little deeper and you will find that it can taste significantly different in say Pouilly Fumé on the left bank of the Loire to Sancerre on the right bank with Pouilly Fumé a little broader and smokier and Sancerre a little more vibrant and floral.
