5.1 Site Selection

Question 1

What are key influences on site selection when establishing a vineyard?

Answer 1

Style, quality, and price of the wines

Question 2

What is needed in a vineyard site to produce high volume, inexpensive or mid-level wines? Give an example.

Answer 2

• Flat, fertile site (high yield, adequate ripening, allows for mechanization)
• Warm, dry climate (low risk of fungal disease, save $ on spraying)
• Ex: Central Valley, Chile

Question 3

What is the downside of high yields?

Answer 3

• Lack of concentration in grapes

Question 4

What is the downside of warm climates?

Answer 4

• Jammy aromas, lack of freshness

Question 5

What is needed in vineyard site to produce super premium wines? Give an example.

Answer 5

• Depends on style desired
• Cool climates: producer may look for sites that will maximise potential to ripen the grapes, such as those with aspects that will receive most sunshine throughout the day, (Ex: Rheingau, Germany)
• Warm Climates: producer may favour relatively cool sites, such as those at high altitude (Ex: Lújan de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina) or those exposed to cooling sea breezes (Ex: Casablanca, Chile) to bring better balance to the wine.

Question 6

Name 6 logistical, legal, and cost factors that go into site selection.

Answer 6

1. price of land within desirable GIs
2. location, layout and topography of the site
3. steep slopes unsuitable for mechanisation, labour expensive/hard to attain
4. source and cost of irrigation
5. access to the vineyard site/distance from the winery (limit risk of oxidation/ microbial spoilage in transportation)
6. proximity to towns/cities for labour, supplies

Question 7

Why might PDO come into play when selecting sites for wine growth?

Answer 7

A producer investing in expensive PDO land with the intention of creating a wine that does not meet the rules (and therefore will be declassified) is taking a business risk

Question 8

What is the origin of the word “terroir”?

Answer 8

• comes from the French word terre meaning ‘land’

Question 9

What is the physical definition of terroir?

Answer 9

• A sense of place: a wine shows characteristics that relate to the particular place in which the grapes are grown – climate, soil, aspect, elevation.

Question 10

Give an example of a human intervention that affects terroir.

Answer 10

• Where French PDOs stipulate planting density, type of trellising and so on in their regulations

Question 11

How might soil affect terroir? Give an example. How is this idea contested?

Answer 11

• Wines may claim to be directly influenced by the geological make-up of the soil
• Implies that the vine takes up elements from the soil that affect the taste of the wine
• Ex: Perceived chalkiness of the taste of Chardonnay is attributable to the vines being grown in chalky soils
• Strongly contested by scientific community who says that
  1. photosynthesis primary driver of vine growth
  2. all aroma compounds synthesised in the vine
  3. grape must further transformed during fermentation

Question 12

What can obscure terroir? Give 2 examples.

Answer 12

• overly zealous winemaking practices

Examples:

1. Picking over-ripe fruit
2. Ageing wines in new oak