Terroir and blends

"Dee Dovey" skrev i melding news:hg08fb$hft$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org...

Good question. The chateaux of Bordeaux generally comprise a contiguous plot of land which is planted with a variety of grapes. The proportion within a given plot depends on the aptitude of the land and the decided profile for the winery - traditions that often are centuries old but may be modified over time. Furthermore, the grapes actually used in the official blend depend on the vintage - the blends in cold years are often different from these in warm ones.

The cheaper Bordeaux wines may well be sourced from different plots and thus do not display much terroir other than that of Bordeaux itself in general.

A simplified response, this, I think :-) Anders

Thank you, Anders. My appreciation, Dee Dee

Simple, but correct as far as I know for Bordeaux

In other places though, occasionally you get "field blends". Here, different varieties are grown in the same vineyard. If they are old vineyards, the varieties may be very well mixed, and the owner may not even know or care what the viarieties are. In more recently planted vineyards for field blends, each row will contain only one variety, but adjacent rows may well be different.

In message Steve Slatcher wrote:

As Anders hinted the situation is in fact really quite complicated and varied, certainly in Saint-Emilion. Some of the modern style wines like Valandraud and Le Dôme are made from grapes grown on difgerent parcels in the Jurisdiction which may have very different soil types, heights above sea level, exposure and other aspects of difference which go to make up ”terroir•. Equally many of the traditional great growths, although having contiguous parcles of diffferent grape vartieties, have different soil types across their vineyard and plant accordingly. This is particularly true of thos on the Côte which may have part of the plateau, th Côte itself and then the foot of the Cote all producing very different wine for blending even from grapes of the same cepage. It is also true of many Chateaux on the plateau that differences bnetween parcels produce very different wines. I had a most interesting tasting in June of 2008 Merlot barrel samples at Grand Pontet where the difference in height and vine age of the plots was very illustrative of the complexities of all this. Some winemakers will actually make two wines from one area in order that the different soil types may be used at their best — at the east end of the Cotes, for example the Lavaus at Ch. Bernateau make both an eponymous wine grown on argilo-calcerous soil and Ch.Peyronneau on sand and gravels. Both have been Grand Crus in recent vintages but they show the differences of terroir although the cepage is broadly similar.

Tim Hartley

I think it's important to remember that "terroir" is more than soil. It's the entire enviorment of the vineyard including the aspect of the vines in relation to the sun, the drainage and humidity, the relative temperatures of the air and the soil throughout the months, weeks, days, hours, etc.

The grape varieties' characteristics become of secondary importance where terroir is well developed. It just happens that in the southern areas you need more than one grape variety to obtain a balanced well rounded wine.

That's why they have three grapes in Champagne, but only one each in Burgundy down south ... ;-)

scnr,

M.

Yes, for bubbly Champagne is fairly southern, its ideal terroir being England one assumes that over there they would not blend :-)))

Of course, why should you blend Wrotham Pinot, that superb grape for bubblies?

:-)

M.

Smiley noted, but I feel duty-bound to point out that of course we blend grapes for our sparkling wine. However, it is nice to see that our terroir (actually the same seam of rock that goes through Champagne) is getting recognition.

More seriously, I am not sure I understnd your point about southern areas needing to blend varieties. Were you thinking specifically of Bordeaux? What examples do you have in mind?

Well, the S Rhone Valley is replete with blends and most Italian reds were historically blends (I think). The thinking is that, by blending, one can make up for the deificiencies of one variety with another; why that should be more prevalent in the southern areas has to do with the reduced acidity found in hotter growing regions (maybe).

Mark Lipton

Yes, exactly.

In France Bordeaux, Provence, LAnguedoc, Rhone are all blends. Colder cimates like Burgundy, Loire, Alsace are single variety. Even Beaujolais.

Same in Italy, Barolo is single variety, Chianti is becoming single variety but that may indeed be one of the great mistakes i nthe wine world, Chianti has always traditionally been blended. Look at Brunello, another single variety aberration - to the point that nearly all producers were recently caught blending: it's fraud, but in many ways it is understandable, Brunello needs IMHO some rounding off, which explains why it is so hard to find a TRULY remarkable Brunello :-)

cheers

Mike

Coldest climate in France, Champagne, is ...?

scnr

M.

yes yes, but as you know exceptio probat regulam...

Blanc de blancs is the exception to the exception I understand :-) Anders

As are pure Pinot Noirs...

I am not at all convinced. There are plenty of varietal wines in Southern Italy. And in South West France south of Bordeaux. I would explain it more by historical accident than design. The better wines from New World areas (many of which tend to be warmer that cooler climate Europe) are also likely to be mono-varietal.

surely not just making up for deficiencies but sometimes taking advantage of synergies?

pk

Obviously there is no hard rule, but areas with a longer tradition of quality seem to fit (other than Champagne).