Gladstone’s earlier book – Viticulture and Environment (1992) – was a seminal text on climatic and geomorphological influences on grape growing, and any sequel to that book has been too long in the waiting.

In this volume the agricultural scientist explores the history and science of soil and climate in wine production, and normalises the term ‘terroir’ for Australasian usage, where in the recent past the term had been a preserve of European expression.

The book kicks off with a three-page definition of terroir with the only possible conclusion that it comprises the total geography of a vineyard’s locale, and includes man’s intervention as “good wine reflects the terroir(s) of its origin”.  Scale of site can be small or large depending on climato-physical parameters.

So far, so uncontroversial, and the rest of the first half of the book explores the innumerable interactions that go to make up terroir.  To this end, there’s plenty of science and numbers in the book for the academic and quasi-academic reader to get their teeth into, presented in an eminently readable and persuasive style. Occasional hypotheses and discussion paragraphs appear, such as one relating ‘grape ripening to root-produced hormones, influenced by a combination of both soil and atmospheric conditions.’ These are accompanied by countering arguments to the hypotheses, and a fully referenced text directs further research for anyone so inspired.

Effectively, Gladstones expounds temperature as the big climate driver of viticulture location and growth development, on which other big things overlay, such as continentality, cloud cover, luminosity, day length, wind and humidity.

He then neatly delves into above-ground geomorphology before exploring the below-ground environment of root functioning, where the influence of water is a common denominator of both locales. Temperature of soil and roots is discussed as a significant terroir effect.

Much of the second half of the book concerns itself with natural and man-made factors of climate change, with the author reviewing and critiquing previous studies as well as the premises for some of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) modelling.

Controversially, perhaps, Gladstones concludes that the effects of climate change, at least viticultural climate change, have been over-egged. He concludes viticultural Europe was warmer in the Medieval Warm Period of 900 to 1300 than in the late 20^th century, before submerging into the 15^th century Little Ice Age, from which Europe began to emerge properly only in the 19^th century. Gladstones suggests this as an explanation for the recent demise of very late ripening Bordeaux varieties carmenere and petit verdot, though it should be said the latter is in resurgent mood again in Bordeaux.

Gladstones presents his arguments in a likely and engaging read, weaving together the myriad factors affecting vine growth, the result of which is he poses more questions than he set out to address. There’s a huge amount of food for thought here for anyone interested in understanding why particular vine varieties do well in particular places, and where they might do well in the future.

Orange altitudes

The booklet is crammed with all the useful information and data to make a serious wine student’s eyes water with expectation: topography, geology, climate, weather, soils, and the effects of altitude (within Orange) on the flavour profile of the main grape varieties grown in the region. Viticultural consultant, proprietor of Hedberg Hill, and Charles Sturt University lecturer, Peter Hedberg contributed to the booklet.

He explained “There is a young – 12 million years old – cap of basalt, which overlays 400 million year old soils of gravels, shales, limestones etc. On top of it all is a deep, red friable soil.”  He said the area used to be 5,000m high “but erosion has exposed granite batholites”, adding “limestone breaks out to the surface at elevations of 600 to 700m.”   

Effectively there are different geologies approximately according to altitude. Above 800m are the young volcanic basalts under deep, loamy soils. Up to 800m are older volcanics covered by lighter loamy soils. And around 600m are ancient soils derived from those limestones, shales, greywacke etc.

Phil Kerney, winemaker at Ross Hill wines, and Orange-based contract winemaker for others, said that at the 1,000m Ross Hill site “we’re basalt-derived soils. But at the Ross Hill original block near Bloodwood, at about 780m, the soils are ancient, weathered granites.”

As part of the traditional model of terroir, it is the land, rather than the winemaker, that should speak. Mayfield Vineyard’s owner Richard Thomas said “we don’t want the winemakers’ fingerprints on the wines. We very much want an expression of the vineyards, a certain place, a certain time.”

However many, Mayfield included, send their fruit out of the region to be made under contract elsewhere. Small scale has been cited as a deterrent to setting up a winery and making one’s own wine. But the terroir model comes from Europe, where there are enough producers growing and making their own wines from just a few hectares of intimately-known vineyards, that this alone ought to inspire Orange folk to turn to on-site winemaking to gain close control of the product that bears their names.

It’s not to say that good wines aren’t already being made, just that they might be better by keeping tighter control of the whole process from vineyard to bottle. Indeed Mayfield were in my favourite wine selection from Orange.

Kerney said “I’ve worked all over the country and in Europe. My style is traditional winemaking with modern materials.” And in two short years, he’s beginning to overcome this resistance to a more vineyard-based winemaking for his contract clients, saying “we make wines to express the terroir of their vineyards. They pick when I advise. And they come out with a unique wine, but people still shy away from this, saying it’s too complicated.” It might be a bit complicated – in those two years, Kerney has made more than a hundred batches of wine, not necessarily large quantities, but winemaking on site is the only realistic option to be able to fully express vineyard site.

It jars somewhat that so many growers send off their fruit to contract winemakers, usually outside the region. To a European this is the antithesis of terroir. A primary tenet of the European model of terroir is the intimate husbandry of the land and of winemaking by one and same team, in order to coax the best expression of terroir from the fruit during winemaking.

Orange is inordinately young. As producers get to grips with the evident potential of their region, investment in own-winemaking facilities is bound to follow, possibly once the world begins to emerge from the global financial crisis, and capital investment no longer looks quite so risky.

My research visit to Australia in October 2010 was sponsored by Wine Australia.

Los Lingues vineyard

The Casa Silva study came about because the family-owned and run company wanted to understand why they had the same grape variety in the same climate but they were getting quite different wines.  They wanted to explain this variability so the knowledge could be used to grow grapes better matched to the style and quality of wines they wanted to make. 

And they’ve discovered that even very small distances in the vineyard can produce different results in the wine, which is making them re-evaluate what they plant and how they manage the vineyard on a micro-scale.

How it happened

The research project was started in 2005, by Casa Silva’s technical director and chief winemaker Mario Geisse, in conjunction with Professor Yerko Moreno of the University of Talca, where he is the director of grape and wine research, specialising in viticultural issues including clonal selection. 

They started looking at small ‘terroir units’ of 0.1 to 0.5 hectare with an aim to identify the pre-requisites for growing high quality carmenère in Colchagua.

Prof Moreno in a soil pit

They investigated crop load (the weight of grapes per vine), vegetative vigour (foliage), as well as the soils, which have all been brought down from the Andes over the last 300,000 years, and contain more or less rock, depending on location.  Professor Moreno said the team identified “small terroir units for carmenère, cabernet sauvignon, viognier, syrah, petit verdot, considering climatic conditions, topography, soil composition and origin, vine rootstock, variety and clone, and viticultural managment.”  He said they dug hundreds of soil profiles, describing them for chemical composition, water holding capacity, rooting capacity, which allowed them to separate areas into different units, broadly along the lines of sand, limestone and clay.

They measured growth parameters of the vine, including the vegetative canopy and yield, and related this to bunch shade/exposure. Moreno said: “If you have a grape cluster that is too exposed under our conditions, you can cook the berries. It’s completely different from areas of cooler climate. It can reach up to 45°C in our valley.” What they found was that sunny berries had lower colour, harder and drier tannins. 

Then they did lots of small batch winemaking and carefully analysed the resulting wines, creating a virtual warehouse of vineyard and winery data.  Once they started to sort out some of the effects, Moreno said “One of the most important for me was the water behaviour of plants. Cultivars have different responses to stress – syrah copes with more stress than cabernet sauvignon. And vines of the same cultivar behave differently in different sites, and within one season.”  He added “cabernet sauvignon with severe water stress produced more astringency in the wines, the tannins were too harsh.  And if there was no water stress, we tended to have similar problem – the tannins were too harsh.” 

But on carmenère the results were different. With no water stress there were “green characters.  We got some dry tannins with increased water stress, though not as much as cabernet sauvignon.” He explained “the best expression of carmenère was achieved where the plant had to explore greater soil volume to get its water supply, at least one metre deep.”

The results of this research are enabling Casa Silva to replant areas of vines. Moreno said: “I would change the way the vineyards are planting, not the direction of rows. This project is aiming to produce high quality wines, the variabilities are subtle.  New plantings are being done considering the soil.” Combine this with tweaking vineyard management to realise more potential from their grapes should enable Casa Silva, Geisse said, “to get the best possible quality wines” from each plot.

The research also revealed quite marked genetic variability in the carmenère vines, so Casa Silva recently embarked on new research into carmenère clones to identify those that produce better quality fruit for high class winemaking.

Heiligenstein vineyard, Kamptal

This hillside vineyard was first mentioned in the Zwettl abbey register of 1280 as “Hellenstein”, or hell stone, because it was a mountain on which the sun “burns like hell”.  It was later renamed Heiligenstein, or “holy rock”, in possibly in an early form of political correctness.

The Heiligenstein is a unique geological formation – a geological island – within Europe, dating to the Permian period some 250 to 270 million years ago, comprising an extrusion of desert sandstone with volcanic and carboniferous conglomerates.

Digging deeper into a more detailed meaning of ‘primary rock’ or ‘urgestein’ reveals many layers.  “In ancient times there were very high mountains here.” explained Willi Bründlmayer of the eponymous Kamptal estate Weingut Bründlmayer. “There was an erosion of 300-1,000m, which left some rock stumps.  These rock stumps are primary rock.  The rocks are silicate, gneiss, granite, amphibolites. Then 250 million years ago, erosion residues and volcanic material and vegetation residues had built up. Later this mixed material compressed over a long time, and changed to soft rock. This was then pushed up again tectonically. What remains are Heiligenstein and Lamm vineyards.

Willi Bründlmayer holding primary rock

Hannes Hirsch of the eponymous estate Weingut Hirsch, added that after the “volcanic activity there was consistent vegetation 250m years ago which left roots and leaves, layers and layers of which built up. A shallow ocean then came in, then tectonic movement which pushed out the Permian material again.”

This complex ancient geology plus centuries of viticulture have resulted in a detailed map of vineyards matched to grape variety, mostly either riesling or grüner veltliner, which now account for 80% or more of plantings in Kamptal.  Bründlmayer said “Heiligenstein is more to the west, cooler, poorer, and better adapted for riesling. There’s no grüner veltliner.  Lamm has a layer of chalk-rich loess and loam, it’s a richer soil, warmer.  It’s suited to rich styles of grüner veltliner.” The Lamm vineyard, lying on the lower slopes below the Heiligenstein vineyard, has a primary rock base underneath the loess and loam. 

Bründlmayer added “riesling is better planted directly in the primary rock, and grüner veltliner prefers the addition of some rich material – sediment, loam, loess.”

Detail of Kamptal vineyards

The Gaisberg vineyard, to the immediate south-east of Heiligenstein, marks the end of the ancient massif coming down from the north, and is founded on primary rock of gneiss and mica-schist. Hirsch said: “you can break it up, it’s schistous with a brown earth layer. And the eastern part of the vineyard has a loess covering, which came from the east”.  Gaisberg is often planted to riesling.

Heiligenstein and ‘primary rock’ are only ever spoken in the same breath, but primary rock is a term used elsewhere for soils coming from this very old rock. Much of nearby Wachau has granite and gneiss primary rock at its foundation, and the primary rock soils have been divided into the three main camps of granite, gneiss and slate.

Over the geological time of millennia, rocks have been variously heated, cooled, compressed and tectonically moved. Granite is a mineral-rich rock formed of molten material. Gneiss can be formed by changes in heat and pressure. Slate can be the product of sedimented erosion material which has been metamorphosed by heat or pressure.

Soils derived from primary rock are often thin and low in organic matter and fertility, a layer of crumbly rock at the surface with the bedrock 20 to 30 cm below.

The importance of primary rock is the structure and flavour profile found in the wines.  Primary rock is strongly argued to confer ‘minerality’ into the wines.  Bründlmayer said: “On the rocky hillsides, grape berries are smaller. It’s not about the 3, 4, 5 principal elements, it’s about the hundreds of elements.  Heiligenstein is silicate with an acidic element and 250 million year old organic matter.  Roots take many different minerals in many different micro-doses.  It contributes to a wine.”

As yet though, exactly, scientifically, how those mineral-laden rocks confer minerality in wine is yet to be unearthed, as it were. Read here for a discussion about minerality.

The new wine game:  animal, vegetable, mineral.

The term minerality is bandied around with gay abandon by winemakers and industry alike, who regularly struggle to define it precisely when probed. But “minerality in wine is difficult to define” said Kees van Leeuwen, Professor of Viticulture at ENITA – Bordeaux University, precisely “because it does not refer to a specific substance present in wine.”

This leaves us floundering with an imprecise language to describe the term. Among many, Andrew Jefford has described it as an “absence of fruit, animal, wood.” Others intone the chalky, flinty paradigm. So if it’s not animal, nor fruit nor vegetable, must it be mineral?

Minerality implies a quality innuendo

In trying to unravel minerality, we have to overcome ‘tasting by association’ which is trained into our understandings.  Professor Ulrich Fischer, at the department of viticulture and oenology at Neustadt in Germany said minerality is a “self fulfilling prophecy – you learn Chablis is flinty; Mosel is wet slate. You know you have heritage and you pick it up.”  But if you lick that flint or that piece of Mosel slate, there’s not a lot of direct flavour.

One thing’s for sure. It’s trendy. And there’s an implied quality innuendo when minerality is mentioned. So there is a responsibility not to abuse the term.

For analytical study, certain chemical compounds are attributed to certain aromas, for example the floral character of monoterpenes or the green pepper of methoxypyrazines. The chemical compound can be analysed to study how the character is formed. Yet no one compound has yet been attributed to mineral character, which explains why there is no consensus on its use.  

Sensory analysis

We move from analytical study to sensory study, where studies of sauvignon blanc by Dr. Wendy Parr, sensory scientist at Lincoln University in New Zealand, using experienced wine tasters and winemakers from both NZ and France identified “an aroma and flavour characteristic that they term ‘flinty’, ‘smoky’ (but not smoke ’smoky’), or ‘minerality’.” She added “French people also use the word ‘silex’ to describe this note.”

In an ongoing study of the terroir of riesling in the Mosel, Nahe, Rheinhessen and Pfalz, Fischer and his team “do descriptive analysis, evaluating wines on the intensity of ten aromas, such as citrus, pineapple and floral, and taste. People can perceive smell of mineral wine.  In order to be scientific we have to produce a standard, which is reproducible, so we took small stones, wet them, and we look for a smell which is reminiscent of wet slate, wet pebbles. For the taste we couldn’t yet find a standard, however.”

“The standard for minerality is wet pebbles, wet quartzite” Fischer added, “above all it is a smell. Also think about iodine smell at sea and maybe think about fresh oysters. Ozone is maybe coming close, it fits into the concept. “

The terroir connection

You can have terroir without minerality, but can you have minerality without terroir-expression?  Fischer thinks not, saying “minerality is appreciated by people because it relates to the character of the soil. Since the turn of the century, we’re wanting wines with more individuality . One way is to look for more specific terroir wines; another is to use more spontaneous fermentation. This is why wines are getting more mineral. Many wines are fermented warmer [above 18°C]. The fermentation esters are reduced, and other properties of wine are getting stronger, and one of these seems to be the mineral character.”

Parr concurs. “From our data, it is related to the wines from specific areas. All the wines in our studies are tasted blind in opaque glasses and yet the wines from Loire and Saint Bris, near Chablis, always show up with higher intensity ratings to the flinty notes.“

Another area that scientists so far agree that the root route does not exist, in that minerals taken into the plant are not replicated in the form or proportions they’re represented in the soil and bedrock.

And vines have pretty much the same requirements to photosynthesise wherever they are, and soil can be managed to provide these: liming an acid soil, adding drainage to soil in a region of high rainfall. Van Leewen said: “If wine quality was related to specific minerals such as potassium, phosphorus, iron, trace elements, then quality could be improved by addition of these elements. But viticultural practice shows that, except for the correction of severe deficiencies or the application of excessive fertilisation, wine quality is not easily manipulated in either way by these practices.”

The sulphide connection

Nonetheless, many nutrient-poor soils exist. Indeed the heritage of viticulture is on soils that were too poor or mountainous to grow other crops. An indirect relationship between poor soils, stressed vine growth, and winemaking may come into play, with winemaking accentuating or accessing a terroir effect.

Winemaking consultant Sam Harrop MW said “In Pouilly-Fumé, if you bang two bits of silex together, you get an aroma reminiscent of gunflint. Locals believe these flavours come through in the wine and I’ve tasted plenty of wines from this region with such aromas.  But a sulphide is responsible for this aroma, which occurs during fermentation, so the relationship of terroir and minerality is an indirect one. You can’t get the smell of silex banging together directly into the final wine.”

In addition, he said, winemakers in the classic Loire sauvignon blanc regions “have a less interventionist approach – for example, spontaneous fermentation, extended lees contact, not using nutrient supplement – and working with more turbid juices, which offer a greater concentration of precursors for thiol production. All of these work towards greater sulphides some of which can be really positive, and others not quite so tasty. For example I see guava-like thiol expression from ferments of well-managed turbid musts.”  So thiols are terroir-originated, and expressed by a well-managed fermentation process.

Fischer agreed, adding minerality is “more related to terroir than winemaking, though winemaking has an impact.  It seems to be a reductive character, so keeping wine longer on lees enhances the mineral character.”

A thiol called benzenemethanethiol has been reported by Denis Dubourdieu and colleagues at the University of Bordeaux as one source of a mineral/flinty note in sauvignon blanc. Parr said: “It is assumed that these thiols develop their flavour characteristics during fermentation as the precursor compounds in the grape itself need yeast to produce the thiol and the volatile aspects.”   

While there’s a long way to go, minerality clearly does exist sensorially, though current industry usage of the term is highly individual, and without shared meaning. Until more is known, its use as a means of communication may advisedly be used only under caution.

But in recession-hit times the love affair is beginning to wear thin, so it wouldn’t necessarily seem like the best time for a group of wine producers to start a campaign focusing on posh Aussie wines from different parts of Australia, when most of what we’ve been used to is stuff from that ubiquitous catch-all location ‘South Eastern Australia’.

Australia's First Families of Wine group

Nonetheless, this is exactly what a dozen family-owned companies have done.  It’s true to say that Australia doesn’t just produce consistent, entry level wines for everyday drinking. Among the 7,000 or so growers there are plenty more than a handful making sometimes exquisite expressions of site and variety – though at a cost that most Brits have so far been rarely willing to pay.

This ‘bevvy’ of twelve families (twelve being the magic number in wine – one each in a case?) have come together to jointly market their wines, and show us exactly what makes them distinct from the modern-day versions of 70s fashion clinks ‘kanga rouge’ and ‘wallaby white’.

Proudly calling themselves Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW), these guys plan to spend at least AUD$500 million to show that Aussie wines can have real character and individuality, can express the place where they’re grown and made, and the varieties from which they’re made.

The French might have called this terroir, the Aussies call it ‘regionality’.

The aim is to create a whole new image on the global stage for the section of the Aussie wine industry for which such regionality provides a key marker in their winemaking ethos.

Together the twelve own over 5,000 hectares of Australian vineyard, which is about 3% of the country’s total vineyard area. Between them they have over 1,200 years of winemaking experience.

The UK is the initial target market for First Families’ activities, starting in 2010, and I was interviewed about the UK market as part of an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio package about the first families’ initiative.

Listen to the ABC Radio package (3 mins 45 secs):

A draft plan of action to increase awareness based on consumer sampling and education opportunities is due to be finalised in early November 2009.

The founding members of the AFFW are:
Brown Brothers (Victoria)
Campbells (Victoria)
d’Arenberg (South Australia)
De Bortoli (New South Wales)
Henschke (South Australia)
Howard Park (Western Australia)
Jim Barry (South Australia)
McWilliam’s (New South Wales)
Tahbilk (Victoria)
Taylors (South Australia) – called Wakefield in the UK, something to do with a Port company…
Tyrrell’s (New South Wales)
Yalumba (South Australia)

The Australians are not the first to create high profile joint marketing groups.  Primum Familiae Vini has been around for a number of years. More recently a group from New Zealand have joined together, as well as some key producers from Italy who make Amarone.  I’ll publish something about these other groups soon.

Even in recession-hit 2009, wine exports from Germany are  holding steady as the trend to fresh, refreshing, fruity wines continues to grow.  It looks as though we are finally beginning to realise Germany offers fresh, unoaked styles of wine, without the massively high alcohols that can give heat to the palate rather than flavour.

Slopes are important in Germany

Germany’s heritage of producing the greatest rieslings in the world is undoubted. They used to command the highest prices in Europe. Rieslings are again going from strength to strength in the UK, and this includes the traditional styles with some residual sweetness, which are popular with the under 35s, who seem to love trying these wines without the hang-ups that some of the over 35s still seem to have.  With light alcohol, these styles are ideal for lunchtime wines and for the popular gastropub culture. It seems the UK is almost the last to catch on to these light, refreshing, fruity styles of riesling.

But what few realise is that Germany also has a long heritage of producing red wines, although until recently, these were rarely found on any of the export markets.  But that looks set to change.  The last quarter of a century has seen some dynamic changes in the entire approach to red wine making style and quality.

PRESSING THE CHANGES

Just 30 years ago red grape varieties accounted for a little over 10% of the vineyard.   Rainer Lingenfelder of his eponymous estate in the Pfalz explained: “Red wine is not new, however there was a renaissance in red wine starting in mid 1980s. I was one of the growers who wanted to revive the red wine tradition in Germany.” As he’d already worked in Australia and at Grand Puy Lacoste in Bordeaux, he was in a good position to see the potential for red German wines.

In the early 1980s, the way to make red wines was to make them like white wine. Lingenfelder said: “German reds were nothing but a coloured white. Tannins were considered undesirable; malolactic fermentation was a no-no, so a typical pinot noir had considerable acidity, a very, very light colour, and the fruit was nicely ripe for spätlese (late harvest).  It would have been made in sweet style.  So German reds were  pale, with high acidity, some sweetness and no tannin.”  To international markets these would certainly not have been a desirable option.

A handful of forward-thinking producers knew they had to make red wine differently from white. As well as colour, Lingenfelder said they needed “structure, tannin, a completely different body. The key changes were lower yields in the vineyard, a classical fermentation on skins, and a reasonably long fermentation. Malolactic fermentation to reduce the fruity acids (malic), because malic acid collides with tannic acid on palate.  You can’t have both malic and tannic acids. Thirdly oak ageing.”

Lingenfelder said: “It was not the suitability of soil or lack of warmth. Pinot noir ripens properly in Baden, the Pfalz etc.  It was in our minds.  Having gone abroad, we could see from a different angle.  So the time was just ready.”

A quarter of a century later the evidence for good quality red wines is in the bag. Within Germany, some of them are fetching Burgundy 1er cru prices. Initially the demand was so high at home there was no need to export, and there probably still isn’t, but cracking export markets add prestige and profile to a producer, especially such a hard nut to crack as the UK market, where wines from all over the world are present in abundance.

Pfalz

RED GRAPE VARIETIES

While riesling has 20% of the vineyard plantings, red grape varieties are grown on more than a third of Germany’s vineyard area. Pinot noir, called spätburgunder, is the main one, with 11% of plantings, and there has been a big increase in plantings of dornfelder, more than doubling in the last five years, to account for 8% of total plantings. Even the likes of merlot and cabernet sauvignon have appeared since the new millennium, in very small quantities, and restricted to the warmer, more southerly regions such as Baden and the Pfalz.   

Pinot noir/spätburgunder: The best examples are from the Ahr, Rheingau, Pfalz, and Baden regions. Like riesling, it is a variety that is influenced by the terroir. Paul Fürst comments: “pinot noir is always a hand crafted wine. You have to work with the soil and the vine. Good pinot noir is always expensive, when you want minerality and elegance. We are always looking for low yields and thick skins on the bunch.”

Dornfelder: This is a vine crossing from the 1950s, and is a household name in Germany.  It is a deeply coloured variety with good levels of acidity and an aromatic, cherry fruit profile with smooth-textured tannins. The best examples can benefit from barrel ageing which give more grip and structure.  It’s easy to grow and easy to drink, generally having about 12%-12.5% alcohol.

The best reds are found in pockets all over the country, notably the Ahr, Pfalz and Baden. And Rudolf Fürst in Franken deserves special mention. Owner Paul Fürst said: “the western part of Franken is traditionally a red wine area, on red sandstone soil. The only interesting places for red wines are where you find strong soils, e.g. Ahr, Assmannshuasen in the Rheingau, parts of Pfalz and Baden. They make very different types of pinot noir. My type is strong, elegant, with wonderful colour and minerality, very long. 20 years ago we started with small barrels, and now have between 30-100% new oak.”

The small Ahr valley is the renowned red wine region of Germany, with 90% of its vineyard planted to red grapes.  It is one of the most northerly regions in Europe, further north than the Mosel Valley, and it has a special microclimate that allows red grapes to ripen.  Unusually, pinot noir here is planted in slate, which adds a mineral quality, fruitiness and elegance to the wines.

At the Mayer-Näkel estate in the Ahr, 80% of the winery’s production is red. Meike Näkel, who has spent time working in South Africa, explains: “we are very much in the north, but we have a very good microclimate. Our valley is narrow, the vineyards are very steep and south facing. In the narrow valley summer is hot compared to a region beside the valley. Our  soil is dark slate and stone, which warms up easily. The soils conserve heat and give it back to the vines at night-time.”

They export just 5% of production which Näkel says it is a new challenge. “My father started wine in 1982, at this time German red wine was not well known. Not many producers were making good red wine and this was the challenge for him. Now export is my new challenge. ”

Part of the challenge for quality-orientated producers of red wine is that most of the best are small players. They are often run by individual families who work hard in the vineyards and cellars to make good and exciting wines.  This of course means they only occasionally get abroad to promote their wines and build up a following. The onus is on wine connoisseurs sniffing out the best wines and spreading the word.

Bordeaux wine region

Bordeaux is the most prestigious and the finest wine producing area in the world. The eponymous region in south west France is the home of some of the most sought-after “collectors’ items” in the world, as well much good value everyday wine. It produces 14% of all French wines, 65-70 million cases, which is more than Romania.

HISTORY

The region is one of the oldest wine growing regions, and there is a long trading history with England. A 12^th century royal marriage gave to England much territory in south west France, and favourable trading terms.  

During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, long after the land reverted to French ownership, entrepreneurs from several countries such as Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany moved to Bordeaux to trade and export wine to their home countries.   

It was the Dutch, with their excellent land-drainage skills who, by draining the marshy land of the Médoc in the mid 17^th century, exposed their beautifully draining gravels, laying the foundation for the modern Bordeaux wine region – the left bank -  and its top quality wines. 

Bordeaux reds are often called claret in the UK as a linguistic artefact of our centuries-long historical trading association. 

GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

The Bordeaux region covers over 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres). The climate is similar, but a bit warmer to southern England: temperate, with mild winters, damp springs and rainy autumns.    

The region is sliced into three big chunks by the Gironde estuary, which is fed by the rivers Dordogne and Garonne.  The Entre-deux-mers is akin to the bread-basket of Bordeaux producing much everyday red and white wine.  But it is the left bank of the Médoc that lays claim to the finest red wines of Margaux, St. Estephe, St Julien and Pauillac, and the right bank to the highly-prized reds of Pomerol and St. Emilion. 

The best dry whites come from the Graves, immediately south of the city of Bordeaux, and the most famous sweet whites just south of that, in Sauternes and Barsac.                                            

Bordeaux has a total of 57 appellations — a specific, delimited area of land, the name of which appears on the label.   These appellations generally avoid land that is of too poor quality to grow grapes such as low-lying badly drained land, or soils that are too sandy. 

To qualify for an appellation all the grapes must be grown within the borders of the appellation. So, for a wine labelled ‘Bordeaux Appellation Contrôlée’ the grapes can come from anywhere within the 120,000 hectares.  But there are fewer than 800 ha of vines in Pomerol, which makes average production per grower a tiny 2,500 to 3,000 cases.  As a point of comparison, in the UK, we buy over 2.5 million cases of Aussie wine Jacob’s Creek to drink at home.

Another criterion for appellation is the use of specific grape varieties.  For Bordeaux, all red wines are made from cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc (sometimes with sprinklings of petit verdot and malbec).  All white wines, both sweet and dry, are made from differing proportions of sauvignon blanc and semillon, sometimes with a little muscadelle.  Bordeaux wines cannot be made from any other grape varieties. As a comparison, the appellations of Burgundy must be just pinot noir for reds and chardonnay for whites.

GRAPES AND BLENDS – RED

Pauillac vineyards

It is the red wines of Bordeaux that have claimed their place in wine immortality. They account for the lion’s share of production, about 90%. Over the centuries the Bordelais have found that blending their grape varieties can add additional layers of complexity and palate profile to a wine, with the best aspects of one grape variety complementing the best aspects of another.  For the classic cabernet sauvignon/merlot blend the deeply coloured, tannic and richly blackcurrant-fruited cabernet sauvignon can be softened and rounded a little by the more supple tannins of merlot and its additional flavours added of earth, plum and warm bread.  

Within this classic blend there is a useful distinction to be found between the left bank and right bank.  The Médoc tends to have a higher proportion of cabernet sauvignon in the blend, maybe 60-70%, which lends a stronger, more structured profile, with more tannic grip.  The remainder will be 20-35% merlot, up to 15% cabernet franc, plus a little “seasoning” from those other two grape varieties.

Right bank wines tend to have a higher proportion of merlot (~60%) and cabernet franc (~30%) which offer a softer, rounder, more approachable and supple profile, supported by the strength of about 10% cabernet sauvignon. Right bank wines are often considered an easier introduction to people unfamiliar with the wines of Bordeaux.  And in terms of value, some of the best reds are to be found in the lesser known right bank appellations such as Bourg, Blaye, Fronsac and Côtes de Castillon.

GRAPES AND BLENDS – WHITE

White Bordeaux wines are made from semillon and sauvignon blanc, and the sweet styles may have a little muscadelle also.  For dry whites at the lower end of the market – likely from the Entre-deux-Mers – the best may be varietal sauvignon blanc, unoaked, aiming at primary fruit expression, an aperitif style.  At the top end dry whites are generally blends and are serious, overtly oaked, creamily-textured wines needing appropriate food pairing to show their best colours.  The emphasis for this style is on structure and potential longevity rather than immediate fruity appeal and the price reflects this, often £20 and more. 

The sweet white wines of Sauternes and other appellations such as Barsac, Saint-Croix-du-Mont and Cadillac are made in a very different way.  Some grapes are left on the vine after the ‘dry wine’ harvest.  As autumn approaches and with it the risk of rain, the mornings in places close to the river may be misty which brings a beneficial mould, botrytis. Botrytis wraps itself around each intact berry, drawing water from it, thereby concentrating all the other grape constituents.  So long as the afternoons are dry all is well, but if the autumn is damp and rainy the mould can turn nasty and cause the remaining crop to rot, by splitting the berry skin and exposing the pulp. Semillon has thin skins which are susceptible to this magical, risk-laden botrytis.  Blending with sauvignon blanc, which has naturally high acidity, balances the final wine.

CLASSIFICATION

Almost unique to the wine-producing world, a few Bordeaux properties are classified.  About 200 properties are classified, among the ten thousand growers, and it is these ‘top’ châteaux that provide the global benchmark.

The 1855 Médoc classification is the most widely known (see it here).  It was drawn up for the Universal Exposition in Paris of the same year.  Market prices of the day formed the basis of a list of producers whose wines consistently attained the highest prices.  This group of 60-odd châteaux were ranked into 5 groups – first growth through to fifth growth – what are now known as the ‘classed growths’. 

Other properties, such as those in the Graves, Sauternes and St. Emilion, have also been classified, bringing the total up to 200.

REPUTATION AND QUALITY

At their best and classic expression, the prestigious appellations (containing those classified properties) of St. Estèphe, Pauillac, St. Julien, Margaux, Graves, Pomerol, St. Emilion show subtly different flavour profiles, which reflect the particular site where the grapes have grown.  This is the essence of ‘terroir’ or the ’sense of place’ that good quality wines display.

The vast majority of wine is produced in the less prestigious appellations – the Entre-Deux-Mers and areas lying outside the key names.  Some of these wines are bottled at the property and sold as “petit châteaux” wine under its specific appellation and Château name.  Much is sold in bulk to merchant firms which blend various wines into brands e.g. Mouton Cadet, Numéro 1, Sirius, Calvet Classic, sold under the most generic appellation of Bordeaux Appellation Contrôlée.  The advantage here  is that the merchants are able buy fruit and wine from all the Bordeaux vineyards with the aim of finding the best quality they can to fit into the price of their brands.  This is a vital part of the Bordeaux market, and a way of potentially offering consistent and reliable wine styles for consumers to try the region’s wines.

Clare Valley, South Australia

After 200 years of viticulture are Australians beginning to find, or to want to find, a sense of place, an identification of terroir, in some of their wines?

The European model of terroir has evolved over centuries of experiential learning. Indeed that most famous of wine regions, of red wine regions, Bordeaux, was in a large part a white-wine growing region in the 16th century, when the Dutch wanted base material for eau-de-vie. Now it is 90% red, an evolution that began its turnaround in the 17th century, before Australia was even a twinkle in any European’s eye.

If terroir, or regionality, as the Aussies might call anything approaching it, has a recognisable taste-DNA in the glass, even the most hardened anti-terroirists would probably agree that wines such as Barossa shiraz, Hunter semillon, Clare riesling or Rutherglen muscat have a unique and identifiable flavour profile.  These  wines can’t really be from anywhere else. But what about Heathcote shiraz, Hunter shiraz, Hilltops shiraz? Is it just too early for the world to appreciate nuance and stylistic variety from Australia? 

“Most of the wine drunk on a daily basis necessarily drops below the requirement for terroir” said Andrew Pirie, CEO and chief winemaker at Tamar Ridge Estates “because consumers are not looking at complexity or individuality of flavour but rather the basics of flavour, balance and freshness. Australia has been prodigious in this category.”

But, he adds “that is not to say that your average daily wine drinker would turn up his nose at complexity and individuality- it is just a fact that wines with terroir influence are rarely affordable for the mass consumer because large brands and large blends that occupy the terrain of the everyday drinker normally need by nature the steadiness of a large inter-regional blend to be repeatable.”

Directions to 2025

A key thrust of Directions to 2025, the latest strategy document for the Australian industry, is to increase this awareness that there is no one style and price of Australian wine.

And one of the strategy’s strands – ‘regional heroes’ – feeds neatly into the concept of terroir. Wines that focus on regional diversity, wines with ‘a clear association between region and variety and/or style’. This opens up opportunities for the Australian market to expand price points and add complexity to their offering by associating  ’region with style’ rather than grape variety with many styles, which, as Chile saw, can create a narrow perception of a country’s vinous offering.

‘Brand champions’ are still there as an integral core of the strategy which, at the high volume end of production, play to Australia’s original strength of inter-regional blending to produce sufficient volumes of consistently styled wine to meet any amount of demand. 

Macedon Ranges, Victoria

This ’sunshine in a bottle’ label has worked supremely well for two decades.  But in an increasingly competitive global market, playing at the high volume end all the time makes one vulnerable to predation from other countries. Also, Mike Rogers of Aussie retail specialists Philglas and Swiggot said “I see what has made Australia really strong up to now — loads of fruit, low acidity, sweet tannin — is becoming less seductive to consumers. I think many people have got into drinking wine because Aussie wines are so accessible. But I think they’ve got more confidence to say they want something a little less obvious, less powerful, more quirky, more subtle, with more individuality and character rather than something that’s consistently good.”

Directions to 2025 details exactly this.  The stated positioning challenge is to move from the ‘reliable, accessible, everyday’ to the high marking ’super-premium, diverse, individual’.

And none of this is touchy-feely stuff. The stated aim is to deliver an additional AUD$4 billion of wine over the next five years, taking total turnover up to AUD$30bn by 2011.  If only the French laid out some clear strategic marketing aims and put in place mechanisms for producers to plug into…

Paul Henry, general manager market development for the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation has some experience straddling the new versus old world divide. He said: “the concept or philosophy of an Australian sense of terroir has never been absent, just much overlooked. Indeed, many of our now internationally recognised fine wines are ‘built’ along this European paradigm that place, rather then process, is all: ‘distinguished sites’ was a preferred phrase that still endures today.”

GI blues

Like appellations in Europe, the Geographical Indication system is one that delimits geographical boundaries according to agreed criteria. But the long contested boundary disputes of Coonawarra, in South Australia, and, more recently, King Valley in Victoria, illustrate that GI has little to do with terroir, or a consistent, single regional identity.

Tasmania

Brian Lynn, director of Majella Wines in Coonawarra, said: “we’ve always known the very best grapes from Coonawarra come from the terra rossa soils.  The soil is very much the heart of the matter, so it behoves any consumer of Coonawarra wine to ask the provenance of any purchases – where were the grapes grown?  Who made the wine etc.”

In Victoria, producers in the upland Whitlands plateau of the King Valley wanted their own GI, but to no avail, despite a decade of legal wranglings. At up to 900m above sea level, Whitlands is garnering its reputation for cool climate sparkling wine fruit, and aromatic varieties for still wine such as sauvignon blanc.  They’ve argued that other areas of the King Valley are climatically distinct, allowing for example, the growth of fruit for fortified wines from much lower down the valley. 

The Victorian microcosm

 In the wider context Victoria looks hunky-dory to benefit from the regionality/terroir thing. With 21 different, diverse regions, the state of Victoria has some just claim to be Australia’s regional hero de force, and has adopted the “Wines from somewhere rather than wines from anywhere” strap-line.  

The state’s wine industry association is busy preparing a marketing document telling the stories of each region, for example the Alpine Valleys promote ‘wine and food in cool mountain air’ with Mt Buffalo and Mt Feathertop providing rugged sporting opportunities such as paragliding, microlight flying, bush walking, trail riding and mountain biking. Après-ski Aussie-style perhaps?

As you’d expect, pinot noir dominates the Mornington Peninsula theme.  Yarra Valley’s ‘love it all’ message sums up the sparkling base wine to fortified wine breadth of climatic diversity that exists in the valley. Trendy Heathcote focuses on shiraz and Cambrian soils.

The chief executive of the Victorian wine industry association, Joanne Butterworth-Gray said:  “If we accept the definition that terroir is an aggregated effect of soil, topography, climate and possibly geology, then we have a fascinating story to tell – one that is unique within Australia.”

It would be a hard person indeed who disputed the unique attributes of Victoria’s Rutherglen muscats, but durif, brought to this small region exactly 100 years ago, is making a small name for itself. Colin Campbell, winemaker at Campbells in Rutherglen, said “While durif is grown in other parts of Australia, they’re different from ours. It’s more earthy and spicy than the newer clones that have come in over last 30 years.”  It seems some of that old world experiential learning is rubbing off in double-quick time.

Henry’s earned the last word: “the latest marketing efforts of Wine Australia should be seen as seeking to introduce an additional level of detail in our category evolution – regionally distinct wine that has a credible and discernable sense of place. These aspects have always been here, they just haven’t always enjoyed an appropriate focus.” It’ll all help push up the average FOB price too.

Delimiting terroir

Terroir is oft-defined as a confluence of a myriad of factors in a specific geographical location, including climate, soil and vines. Within this, water relations, topography and man’s influence strongly feature.

For great terroir there have to be elements of taste-DNA in the glass that enable the taster to pin-point that greater or lesser geographical location.

Beyond the individual characteristics of grape varieties, some elements of place and climate are taken for granted: low versus high acidity; medium versus high alcohol; jammy, baked, stewed fruit versus crunchy, fresh, aromatic fruit.  All these funnel into largely cooler or warmer climes.

Viticultural guru, Richard Smart said: “any place that grows wine has terroir, it goes without saying. Wine has a signature of the place where it was grown. But in the new world we talk about regional styles. Different regions have different attributes: Margaret River and Coonawara produce great cabernet sauvignon, the Barossa produces great shiraz, Tasmania  sauvignon blanc, riesling and sparkling wine. Varietal suitability, the interaction of grape variety and climate it at the crux.” 

 ”Those who have drunk wines from great terroir never doubt the superiority of a site over the creation of a wine blender” said Andrew Pirie, adding “the uncopy-able nature of terroir is what makes it unique, exciting and a step above wine which is just good. What is also attractive is that the character of wine created by terroir is irreproducible.”

In the words of Jeff Grosset, of Grosset Wines in Clare Valley: “The quality and purity of expression of variety is about the site and the making; eg the Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling and the Grosset Polish Hill Riesling – both are considered of similar high quality, yet they are distinctly different. Given they are made in an almost identical fashion this difference is essentially due to site.”