American in France Comments on Terroir

I have absolutely no doubt about this at all. Not that many here, I suspect, will doubt that a wine can reflect the land upon which it's grown.

Two anecdotes

1 Tasting Nuits St George wines at Domaine Henri Gouges. They use the same clones of Pinot Noir throughout their domaine (except where the white sport is grown). They vinify their wines in the same way. Yet if you taste Nuits St Georges 1st cru Les St Georges against the two other 1st crus Les Porrets and Les Pruliers, all three are noticeably different, and yet they are all three on the same hillside, aligned in the same direction. The ONLY difference between the three plots is the soil, and that because of the amount of water run off from the cliffs above.

Tasting barrel samples of the wines destined to become Moulin des Dames white at Ch Tour des Gendre. The estate grows the Sauvignon Blanc grape (same clone) on three different parcels, they all have different types of limestone. The resulting wines are completely different, with one (grown over very hard limestone, into which the roots have difficulty penetrating) really quite similar to some New Zealand SBs. So here are two examples of the same clones of the same vines vinified the same way, showing differences that can only be due to the parcel on which the vines are grown.

I'm not drawing inferences about desirability or otherwise, but merely confirming that the concept of terroir has validity.

As Mike Tommasi says, however, it's difficult to see how the concepto f Terroir can have meaning if the roots don't penetrate deep enough into the soil to interract with it.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" wrote .........

You'll get no disagreement from me, either.

A few months back, I was in Marlborough, visiting the rather prolific Saint Clair Family Estate.

They produce a total of eleven separate Sauvignon Blanc labels.

Most interesting is their "Pioneer Block" range - every one produced from single vineyards in the Marlborough region - some adjoining each other.

A very good web site is at -

Generally, the vinification remains quite constant - juice pressed with minimal skin contact; fermentation in stainless steel at cool temperatures to retain fruit flavour and freshness etc. - but having tasted all eight SBs in this range, the differences are marked and not altogether subtle either.

Terroir is alive and well in NZ

st.helier