People talk a lot about soils and climate when it comes to wine, but there’s a third component that scientists are now beginning to understand more: Flora.įlora includes all the living plants/funghi in a given area. The word “terroir” can mean many things to different wine experts so, for the sake of simplicity, we’ve defined terroir to reference a region’s climate, soils and flora. pruning, irrigation, soil treatments, pest management, harvest timing, etc). Vintage: This area involves the choices that humans make to facilitate grape growing throughout a single year/vintage (i.e.Terroir: Terroir is essentially mother nature’s influence on grape growing and includes the climate, soils and other aspects dealing with the natural world.When you simmer down all the many processes involved in growing great grapes, there are essentially two areas of consideration: “You can make bad wine with great grapes but you can’t make great wine with bad grapes.” -Robert Mondavi Since art is a personal choice, we’ll focus on the quantifiable aspects (Grapes and Winemaking) and leave the fun part of seeking the art-side of wine for you to explore. Winemakers, like artists, follow different ideologies and these core competencies are indeed reflected in the wine. Of course, the more educated you are at understanding the craft of art, the more sophisticated/nuanced your taste will become. Art is also a very personal choice that really comes down to the eye of the beholder. As soon as the winery’s founder considers that their winery may continue to exist after they’re gone, they think differently about how they develop their brand and, ultimately, how they make wine.Īrt: There’s this undefinable x-factor to great wine that’s hard to quantify in a scientific manner. Longterm Vision: There are many intriguing new wineries and winemakers, but the great ones have one thing in common: they think big. Grapes and Winemaking: We can all agree that you need high quality ingredients and exceptional preparation skills to make outstanding sushi (imagine Sukiyabashi Jiro in Jiro Dreams of Sushi) so it’s easy to accept that this same idea also applies to great wine.
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