Of note

Thanks, Jim. Standouts are the linked Tablas Creek piece on CAC and the technical discussion of soil chemistry by Kevin and Kenny H. As a practitioner, what's your view of limestone vs. other soils?

On the tangential point of minerals moving directly from soil to fruit, if even small mineral concentrations exist in the water taken up through the roots, when microscopic bits of soil are dissolved by rainwater, why wouldn't those components not removed for nutritional purposes create corresponding mineral concentrations in the fruit?
 
Noodle, I just wish we could all stop musing about the direct transfer of minerals to wine and move on to a grown-up view of the world.

This hasn't been a realistic view for decades, even on the wine Interwebz. C'mon.

Do we need to preface travel stories with a reminder that the Earth isn't flat?
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Noodle, I just wish we could all stop musing about the direct transfer of minerals to wine and move on to a grown-up view of the world.

This hasn't been a realistic view for decades, even on the wine Interwebz. C'mon.

Do we need to preface travel stories with a reminder that the Earth isn't flat?

Straw men have a near-infinite lifetime on teh Interwebz. Dead horses, too. As I mentioned to Tom on WLDG, a less hysterical view of the situation makes perfect sense. *sigh*

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Standouts are the linked Tablas Creek piece on CAC and the technical discussion of soil chemistry by Kevin and Kenny H.
Love Kenny H.'s sig line:

I'm in total agreement. Rocks. Loam is for lettuce. -- Ian Brand
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Thanks, Jim. Standouts are the linked Tablas Creek piece on CAC and the technical discussion of soil chemistry by Kevin and Kenny H. As a practitioner, what's your view of limestone vs. other soils?

On the tangential point of minerals moving directly from soil to fruit, if even small mineral concentrations exist in the water taken up through the roots, when microscopic bits of soil are dissolved by rainwater, why wouldn't those components not removed for nutritional purposes create corresponding mineral concentrations in the fruit?
Love 'em but finding them in Sonoma, Napa and Lake Counties is both difficult and been pretty much done - meaning, if you have fruit on limestone, you have a long term contract or a deed.
As for direct or even indirect uptake, I'll leave that to folks a lot smarter than I.
And what's this shit about the world not being flat?
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Noodle, I just wish we could all stop musing about the direct transfer of minerals to wine and move on to a grown-up view of the world.

This hasn't been a realistic view for decades, even on the wine Interwebz. C'mon.

Do we need to preface travel stories with a reminder that the Earth isn't flat?

Straw men have a near-infinite lifetime on teh Interwebz. Dead horses, too. As I mentioned to Tom on WLDG, a less hysterical view of the situation makes perfect sense. *sigh*

Mark Lipton
Also worth mentioning the urge to put causes into hierarchies.

How deep the clay is over your limestone matters a lot in Vouvray, or what sort of granite you have under your clay in the Muscadet, but put any of that soil in Bamako, and it won't much matter. Duh.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Love 'em but finding them in Sonoma, Napa and Lake Counties is both difficult and been pretty much done - meaning, if you have fruit on limestone, you have a long term contract or a deed.
As for direct or even indirect uptake, I'll leave that to folks a lot smarter than I.
And what's this shit about the world not being flat?
Best, Jim

It was commonly believed for many years that leaving the world uncorked for even a short period of time would cause it to go flat. Recent research suggests that this is not the case. It is still quite bubbly in places.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Love 'em but finding them in Sonoma, Napa and Lake Counties is both difficult and been pretty much done - meaning, if you have fruit on limestone, you have a long term contract or a deed.
As for direct or even indirect uptake, I'll leave that to folks a lot smarter than I.
And what's this shit about the world not being flat?
Best, Jim

It was commonly believed for many years that leaving the world uncorked for even a short period of time would cause it to go flat. Recent research suggests that this is not the case. It is still quite bubbly in places.
See, I'm down with bubbly.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Noodle, I just wish we could all stop musing about the direct transfer of minerals to wine and move on to a grown-up view of the world.

This hasn't been a realistic view for decades, even on the wine Interwebz. C'mon.

Do we need to preface travel stories with a reminder that the Earth isn't flat?

Straw men have a near-infinite lifetime on teh Interwebz. Dead horses, too. As I mentioned to Tom on WLDG, a less hysterical view of the situation makes perfect sense. *sigh*

Mark Lipton
Also worth mentioning the urge to put causes into hierarchies.

How deep the clay is over your limestone matters a lot in Vouvray, or what sort of granite you have under your clay in the Muscadet, but put any of that soil in Bamako, and it won't much matter. Duh.
Joe,
You surprise me; this much cynicism; what are you into?
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
See Colon, C. (1492).

Lacking guidance from my betters here, I did a very casual browse in the Web of Science on this subject. Minerals are routinely transported from soil to fruit in the form of nutrients - said exchanged cations, especially nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. I dare say, this point seems obvious on reflection.

At temperate climate sites, where water isn't scarce, mineralized nitrogen is usually the growth-limiting nutrient, and plants will regulate their uptake of other minerals in proportion to the amounts nitrogen they can get at. So mineral concentrations in juice should tend to vary to some degree with soil nitrogen availability. I don't know if mineral concentrations at this scale would directly affect juice flavors. WRT indirect effects, one study showed augmented anthocyanin development in one cultivar (Cab. Sauv.) subjected to limestone treatement, but not in another (Merlot).

Anyway, as Joe's subsequent post suggests, wine flavor development is a complex result of numerous inputs and processes, of which soil composition is just one.
 
Fitz,
The claim is not that soil is where plants get their non-carbon elements (where else?), the claim is that the grapes taste like the particular dirt as an immediate consequence of the dirtstuff being taken up by the plant and transported into the grapes.

This is silly, and long since disproved. It is sad to see it popping up all the time, you would think that there would be some mental progress in the world.

Of course, I could turn on my TV on a Wednesday night and learn to dampen my enthusiasm.

Or, you could read David Lillie's article on Muscadet terroirs for a starter.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
[...]

Or, you could read David Lillie's article on Muscadet terroirs for a starter.

Actually I've just been re-reading Chapin et al. Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology, which has perfectly good chapters on productivity and nutrient cycling. The question is why it I had to post here and search WoS before putting that info together with my initial question. I'm chagrined.
 
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