Plant Material and Terroir

A reaction from a recent tasting comparing the wines of Chambolle-Musigny with those of Volnay drew attention to how different are the flavors of individual wines. Pinot Noir is basically going to taste of red fruits - red cherry and raspberries in particular - and sometimes fruits of somewhat darker flavors. And all the wines met this broad flavor parameter. But beyond that, there were so many differences expressed in other additional flavor elements - some spices, some pepper, some menthol notes. Different degrees of florality. Soy and even ginger were mentioned by our group. And there seemed to be no consistency between the ten wines as to these supplemental flavors - neither by village nor grower. Each wine, beyond being broadly red fruited, seemed to have a set of unique supplementary flavors.

So one is left asking - what contributes to the wide spectrum of flavors ?  We speculated that the differences in plant material and perhaps rootstock result in a wine having a particular flavor profile that can be unique. A vertical tasting of the same wine - or a pair of wines - from the same grower would be helpful in evaluating the extent to which clones impact flavor. Is it the case, for example, that certain rows of vines in a particular vineyard always present a menthol/mint/ slightly medicinal profile whereas other rows with different clones or rootstocks but essentially identical soils and exposition do not ? The answer is surely yes. 

Presumably these flavor profiles may also be influenced by the particular yeasts in the winemaker's cellar. 

All of which suggests that as to flavors - rather than a wine's structural components - terroir (in the narrow sense of a vineyard’s location and soil composition) may be much less impactful than these other elements of plant material and indigenous yeasts, once one steps outside the broadest fruit flavor parameters to which the grape variety is limited. So the extent of terroir’s influence - meaning the physical location of the vine - must be considered with this in mind. 

A topic worthy of more discussion.