BOTTL Words: Terroir – Soil

As we explained in our first post on terroir… this French word is a great place to start with any wine. Quite simply it means the combined effect of the climate, soil and terrain on a wine. The variation in terroir across the world can make the same grape produce distinctly different wines. Once you know what the terroir is of a region you can begin to have a good idea of the style of wine to expect. Of course there are still an abundant amount of further contributory factors that define the wine during the winemaking process but as we said at the beginning this is a good place to start. After all, winemakers, at their core, are farmers, and any good farmer will tell you it all starts with the earth beneath your feet and the atmosphere above your head. Our second instalment explains the element beneath our feet…

Part 2: Soil

Well, not just soil, sometimes it’s rock, sometimes it’s stone, sometimes it’s gravel. Put it this way there are a huge number of soil types across the wine regions of the world and all of them have a unique way of adding flavour to the wine.

Many of you will have heard of minerality, the sense that the wine has a wet stone flavour or something akin to the freshest of mountain water. This is often associated with wine grown on limestone soils such as Chablis which is a beautifully fresh and mouth-watering wine made from the Chardonnay grape in the northern tip of Burgundy – our L’Enclos Premier Cru Chablis is a SENSATIONAL example!

It is quite often you’ll hear someone say, “Oh I don’t like chardonnay but I love a good Chablis.” Now some of you may know that Chablis is made solely from Chardonnay grapes and thus look confused at this statement but of course most of us probably don’t know that fact, so saying you like Chablis but don’t like Chardonnay is understandable. Why? Because the soil in Chablis is in great contrast to other regions where Chardonnay is grown. The soil can change over a matter of miles as further south in Burgundy the limestone and clay is subtly different and the climate gets slightly hotter, thus the Chardonnay evolves different flavours – it’s all in the terroir!

I am focusing on France just because it’s where my love of wine originated and because it holds such variety across its appellations. So my next example links to our RED. JUICY. SUPERB. wine the Le Petit Mod’Amour. This comes from the Cote Catalanes, an appellation within the region of Languedoc, which is notoriously dry, arid and has poor stony soils.

How on earth do vines grow in poor soils?

Surely this will give uninspiring, vapid wines?

NO.

Vines are Darwinian, they strive to find the nutrients they need and poor soils just make them more determined, think Wim Hof climbing Everest in just a pair of shorts, these vines are the marines of the wine world and delicious wine is literally the fruits of their labours. I don’t think I’ve had a more JUICY wine than the Mod’Amour and that is partly down to the poor soil forcing the vines to find those nutrients and deliver them to the grapes which, combined with low rainfall, leads to a concentration of flavour in the grapes. That concentration of flavour can’t help but release juice into the resulting wine. From the driest of soils to the juiciest of drinks – it’s all in the terroir!

If you’ve read both our posts on terroir you’re probably starting to understand what makes a wine that you love. Of course with BOTTL we’ve provided a shortcut by categorising our wine into FRESH. JUICY. and RICH. We’ve done the work so you don’t have to! However BOTTL Uncorked is all about digging deeper (soil pun intended) and learning as much or as little as you want about the method behind the magic.

Drink climate, drink soil, drink terroir. Drink Differently.

Cheers,

Phil.

This French word is a great place to start with any wine. Quite simply it means the combined effect of the climate, soil and terrain on a wine. The variation in terroir across the world can make the same grape produce distinctly different wines. Once you know what the terroir is of a region you can begin to have a good idea of the style of wine to expect. Of course there are still an abundant amount of further contributory factors that define the wine during the winemaking process but as we said at the beginning this is a good place to start. After all, winemakers, at their core, are farmers, and any good farmer will tell you it all starts with the earth beneath your feet and the atmosphere above your head. We’ll explain the three elements of terroir in three separate posts…

Part 1: Climate

Secondary school geography will come in handy here if any of you can remember it. What’s the difference between weather and climate I hear you say? Well, weather is the state of the atmosphere over a small area on a daily basis and climate is the state of the atmosphere over a large area over a long period of time. It is the latter that has a marked effect on the taste of a wine with most wines being categorised into cool climate (for higher acidity, lower alcohol wines – for BOTTL this equals FRESH) and warm climate (higher alcohol, smoother wines – for BOTTL this equals JUICY and RICH wines). So if you like a lighter fresher wine you want to be looking to cooler wine making regions like the Loire valley, Germany and England. For the more full bodied, richer wines you want to head to southern France, Spain and Italy. However as you explore more wine you’ll see that there are areas that buck the trend! Why? Well, many countries have microclimates where the localised geography means the atmosphere is very different to the country as a whole. Also winemaking regions can occupy different altitudes and vary in their proximity to the coast, both of which can create cooler or hotter climates for the vines and grapes to grow in. This is why some alpine regions in southern France and northern Italy can produce fresh light wines as they sit at higher altitude and thus have a cooler climate even though they are on a similar latitude to places like Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley that produce heavier, richer wines as they are positioned closer to sea level and thus have higher temperatures.

As I said, this is just a starting point and as ever with BOTTL you can take as much or as little knowledge as you wish. Part 2 and 3 of our investigation into terroir will give more clarity to why this unique French word really does epitomise how our ever changing landscape delivers us such a wonderfully diverse and complex range of delicious wine! Who knew our school geography lessons could teach us so much about our drinking tastes? We would’ve listened more closely if they’d made that clear.

Here’s to knowing your terroir and being able to drink differently as a result!

Phil.

BOTTL’s aim is to make wine a healthy part of your lifestyle. Healthy?! Surely wine is the opposite. Well of course anything with alcohol content has to be drunk in moderation but remember, wine, when made well, is a beautiful expression of the best nature has to offer. With the abundance of cheap wine on the supermarket shelves which cannot easily be tracked to a vineyard, winemaker or farmer, it is easy to see wine as a drink that gets you drunk but we hope BOTTL can change that perspective and part of how we want to do that is through our wine tips.

This space is a chance for us to share with you the terminology, philosophy and stories behind the bottles. We will keep it brief and straightforward, we’re not here to pontificate on wine for our amusement but instead redefine the way we talk about wine, unlock the processes that make the wine taste the way it does, help you feel confident pairing, discussing and recommending rather than nervously retreating to the old faithfuls: ‘Malbec’ or ‘Sauvignon’ please! Nothing wrong with those grapes of course, but there’s so much more out there to explore and we want to share it with you, in typical BOTTL style: concise, direct and overwhelmingly enjoyable.

Wine shouldn’t simply be an afterthought in the supermarket aisle or a blurry hangover the day after. BOTTL: It’s wine, without the headache. And where you can learn as much or as little about wine as you wish.

If you have anything you want explained or written about then get in touch at hello@bottlwine.co.uk and we’ll write a blog post about it.

Here’s to drinking differently!

Phil and Matt.