Soil and Wine Flavor

O

Oliver McCrum

Oliver McCrum
I am going to be putting on a tasting of certain southern Italian wines in a few weeks under the title 'Wines from Volcanic Soils.' My theory is that some of the very distinctive flavors found in certain wines from volcanic soils in eg Campania and Sicily are caused by those soils. The only problem is that most of the academic writing I've seen about soil and wine flavor seems to suggest that the effect is limited or poorly understood (or maybe thought to be limited because poorly understood).

Does anyone know anything concrete about this subject?
 
I have two of Professor White's books on soil and found nothing helpful in them. He has put me in touch with some other people, we'll see.

The Oxford Companion starts off with 'Geology...may have been overestimated in its importance in shaping wine quality and flavour, and some geological remarks in popular books are nonsense.' I have trouble believing it's all due to drainage, macronutrients and topography, however.
 
Are you a Purple Pages subscriber? If so Jancis writes a bit about the topic here. I'm not so I can't read it.
It appears to be a response to essentially the same question you're asking from a subscriber. Maybe there's some references cited further on.
 
Not sure it's directly on point, but I recall an article from The Art of Eating a while back called The Mechanics of Terroir that you may find helpful. I seem to recall some discussion regarding the effect of soil on wine. I think the conclusion was that weather informs a wine's character much more than soil.
 
Well, Etna and Vesuvio, for the obvious; and Vulture and Taurasi; and maybe Fiano di Avellino and wines from the Campi Flegrei, which is volcanic sand. I think producers from Etna and Vulture will be there, it should be interesting.
 
How will you control for the differences in the various other elements in microclimate/macroclimate in your tasting? Sure the wines may taste different, but that does not prove anything specific about the soil unless you can isolate the other variables.
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
How will you control for the differences in the various other elements in microclimate/macroclimate in your tasting? Sure the wines may taste different, but that does not prove anything specific about the soil unless you can isolate the other variables.
Click to expand...
No one is proving anything it's just a tasting.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
Well, Etna and Vesuvio, for the obvious; and Vulture and Taurasi; and maybe Fiano di Avellino and wines from the Campi Flegrei, which is volcanic sand. I think producers from Etna and Vulture will be there, it should be interesting.
Click to expand...

Of course. It's weird, but i feel like the mainland volcanic soils come through more than from Etna, where the influence seems more subtle. But then maybe aglianico is such a perfect conveyor of fly ash?
 
originally posted by Tom Glasgow:
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
How will you control for the differences in the various other elements in microclimate/macroclimate in your tasting? Sure the wines may taste different, but that does not prove anything specific about the soil unless you can isolate the other variables.
Click to expand...
No one is proving anything it's just a tasting.
Click to expand...

What he said.
 
originally posted by slaton:
There was a pretty good episode on this topic on GrapeRadio some years back, back when I had plenty of free time on my hands to listen to things like podcasts. It was a panel discussion that included a soil scientist, a geologist, and the Schildknizzle himself.

http://www.graperadio.com/archives/2008/04/07/soil-weather-terroir-and-wine/
Click to expand...

Great tip, thanks Slaton.

Can't imagine why I haven't talked to Schildknecht, for that matter, another great idea.
 
Oliver, maybe look to Sannio appellation falanghina and aglianico from Campania. These are often "less ambitious" wines, and not colored as much by oak and points-chasing regimens as are Taurasi and AdV.
 
Chaad,

I don't import wines that are oaky or point-chasing, so there won't be a problem.

My new Vulture producer, in fact, was once told by an American importer that her wines weren't oaky enough.
 
The current state of play scientifically appears to be (not having had time to listen to the podcast yet) that effects of soil are limited to drainage and the presence of the obvious main nutrients. I can't believe that's true, but apparently as yet there is no evidence for further soil effects (not the same thing as evidence they don't exist, of course).
 
There's a pretty big difference in drainage - e.g. Beaujolais slopes are typically convex, thus topsoil washes away easily. So industrial farming looks pretty grim over there. More concave slopes in Champagne, so there's a sweet spot towards the lower half of slopes where there's plenty of (richer) topsoil to sustain vines before they hit chalk. Or how about Northern Rhone, where too much ploughing will lead to erosion; the dry rock walls don't always hold up (and granite vs. limestone Cornas is quite instructive). I haven't read/seen/heard that much on topsoil vs. subsoil and impact on wines, but that to me seems pretty important.

The other factor du jour (at least amongst certain geeky circles), which our favourite young buck at Sella emphasises, is soil pH. Quite fascinating, and makes me wish I'd taken high school chemistry a bit more seriously.
 
Soil pH seems quite obvious as major factor. Pretty important for other plants, as anyone who has experienced blosom end rot in peppers or tomatoes will attest.
 
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