Science, Terroir & Explanations

[Jim Eshelman]

I've just finished an intensive course to get my certification from the North American Sommelier Association as a Master of Terroir, i.e., the particular relationship between wine and the context in which its grapes are grown - things like climate, topography, soil, and culture. Today was almost entirely about soil distinctions.

The reasons for posting this here are something I thought about concerning the attitude of scientists to things they can't explain.

You see, there is a lot of debate on whether things like soil actually affect wine. People deeply into wine production, tasting, and education will mostly tell you that it absolutely does have a difference! I can taste (for example) a dozen Italian wines and tell you which ones come from areas with volcanic soil. (I tasted a white this morning that clearly was grown on soils with white volcanic ash, and I thought it was a Greco de Tufo from southern Italy, even though it didn't quite taste like Greco - more northern in the fruit presentation. But all the volcanic regions are in the south, right? Not quite: This was a Soave Classico from the one part of Veneto that has the same kind of soil in northern Italy.)

Anyway... here's the thing: If you take soil that is, say, very rich in iron (say, from the side of Mt. Etna), and you grow grapes there, and you make wine from the grapes, and everybody trained says there is iron in the wine, and people not trained are likely to recognize the taste of iron, and you think it makes sense that all the iron in the soil got into the wine... but then you do a chemical analysis of the wine... there is no iron in it!

The same thing happens when you chemically analyze wines grown in chalky limestone, like some champagnes, or any of the whites from Liguria, or Chardonnay from Sta. Rita Hills in north Santa Barbara County... there is an unmistakable taste and quality linked to the fact that this is calcium rich soil formed in part from fossilized sea shells etc. It's there, you can learn to recognize it easily. But, when you chemically analyze the wine, it doesn't have the calcium that you were absolutely sure you could taste - even in a blind tasting! Similarly, white wines made near the sea will commonly have a taste of salt and iodine, which makes sense until you find that (yes, you got it) there is no salt or iodine in them.

So, here's the thing: Science says there is no mechanism for the transfer of the flavor, and there is demonstrably no trace of the mineral in the wine. And yet, the taste of the mineral is in the wine.

The fact that a thing cannot be so is not incompatible with the fact that it is demonstrably so.

Sure, there are possible explanations, different avenues that one day may be investigated to give a scientific justification for this. In the meantime, we continue to apply that bedrock principle of science: Objective observation of the phenomena demonstrates that it is so, independent of any possible explanation.

I think you can see that the parallel to astrology's situation is quite strong; and this example seems much more interesting to me than bumblebees.

FWIW.

[mikestar13]

Ah, fine wine. Something else orthodox science sucks at explaining. The analogy is quite apt. BTW, congratulation in achieving your new status in the world of wine! Of course orthosci sucks at explaining things more important than astrology and wine together: love, for instance. Just ask a scientist to explain that. Then ask him again after he's actually experienced it!

[Jim Eshelman]

Thanks, Mike - though I don't have any new status yet. That was just the intensive for the class work. Now I have to organize the information, study it, and pass the exam.

[mikestar13]

Thanks, Mike - though I don't have any new status yet. That was just the intensive for the class work. Now I have to organize the information, study it, and pass the exam.

Well, congratulations on the work so far and best wishes going forward. From some of your previous posts I imagine you are familiar with in vino gaudium (in wine there is joy), certainly with the concept if not the phrase!.

[Veronica]

This is so interesting to me.
I love soil.

" Objective observation of the phenomena demonstrates that it is so, independent of any possible explanation."

All living things have an astrology, grapes and soil too!