To fill in those knowledge gaps, many producers have turned to geologists.  

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“Geologists specialize in studying soils and their evolution,” says geologist Eder González, who has been working with wineries across Chile since 2010. Though these scientists “don’t tell winemakers what, how or where to plant vines,” oftentimes, winemakers and growers make key planting decisions based on their findings. “We can provide detailed insights into how the geology, rocks and hills surrounding their vineyards have evolved.” 

Such knowledge has translated to a growing number of single-vineyard labels, which hail from geologist-identified sites able to produce wines with distinctive characteristics. The influence of geologists, many argue, is changing the game for Chilean and Argentinian wineries, helping them reach new levels of excellence and sustainability. 

The Secret’s in the Soil 

Geologists’ central mission is to segment and classify vineyards. They harness a plethora of lab tests, soil pits and other tools to do so, singling out layers of sediment, rock and other geological features. 

For example, Gonzalez explains, he might want to know why the clay content differs in two different plots of land, despite having the same bedrock, or why some rivers created alluvial terraces while others did not. 

In some cases, these surveys have prompted the development of new wine regions. One example is Limarí Valley in northern Chile, where Gonzalez and other experts studied the abundance of limestone soils in some areas. This soil type is associated with desirable characteristics in wine, such as vibrancy and mineral texture. Limarí Valley is now recognized as one of the world’s top regions for white wines, with prominent producers such as Viña Santa Rita and Concha y Toro sourcing Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from it. 

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Geologists are also helping the continent’s more well-established destinations grow further afield. In Mendoza, Argentina, the expansion of vineyards from the lowlands in the east to the higher altitude regions of Luján de Cuyo and the Uco Valley, which began about 30 years ago, was driven by wineries’ search for cooler temperatures. But the move brought new challenges and opportunities for professionals like geophysicist Guillermo Corona, creator of the Instagram account @geografiadelvino and author of the book Geografía del Vino. 

“As winemakers moved closer to the mountains, they encountered more stony and heterogeneous soils,” Corona says. Over the last decade, his geology research helped many wineries pinpoint the best sites to grow grapes. “If someone wants to find the best place to plant vines, and within that place, find the best patchwork of land, then they need to study the soil,” he says.  

A New Approach to Winemaking 

The benefits of understanding soil composition go well beyond texture and structure. It also has the potential to improve sustainability—specifically in the realm of water management. Knowing how soils retain moisture can help viticulturists more precisely determine the correct amount of water to deliver each vine. 

“Irrigation in vineyards with clay soil is different from those with stony soil,” says winemaker Teresita Ovalle of Viña Santa Rita, one of the largest wineries in Chile. Clay soils, for instance, retain more water than those with a higher percentage of gravel. Therefore, vines in clay soils need to be irrigated for shorter periods compared to vines on rocky soils. This not only helps wineries save water, an increasingly precious natural resource, but can also reduce energy costs. 

After working with geologists, Ovalle decided to separately vinify grapes from various geologically superior sites. Each area produced a high-quality wine with different characteristics—some muscular and tannic, others more elegant.  

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“The tannins and structure of wine are determined by the place where the vines grow,” says Ovalle. “In our Alto Jahuel vineyards in Maipo Valley, we can compare a Cabernet Sauvignon that grows on colluvial soils in the hills with one that grows on alluvial soils. The latter has silky and rounder tannins than the wine that comes from the hill.”  

Another geology convert is Andrea Ferreyra, winemaker at La Celia, which was founded in 1890 in Argentina’s Uco Valley. Though she has long believed in a holistic approach to viticulture and winemaking, geology has only recently become an integral component of her work.  

“We used to think of Uco as a region with higher altitude, a cool climate, more rainfall compared to other regions and a large diurnal temperature range,” says Ferreyra. “But we didn’t stop to think about what lies beneath the ground—currently, we consider everything as a whole.”  

To date, around 30% of the soil on La Celia’s estate vineyards has been analyzed. Those studies have already paid off: Last year was one of Argentina’s most challenging harvests, with grapes ripening unevenly due to frost. But fruit harvested from one of Ferreyra’s soil-analyzed vineyards proved her saving grace. Using knowledge from the study, she managed each plot separately as best suited them, monitoring the vines’ vigor and carefully calibrating the amount of water delivered. Even in a bad year, it yielded notably good fruit—albeit in lower quantities than had the frost not occurred. Still, in a sense, the soil analysis proved something of an insurance policy. 

Looking to the Future 

The work of geologists in South America has helped the continent’s wine industries to advance substantially over recent years—but their work is far from over. Both scientists and winemakers continue to strive for a deeper understanding of each subregion and appellation. 

“Vineyards in places like Mendoza won’t [physically] expand much more due to the lack of water,” says Corona. In other words, in general, producers won’t be able to find new sites to plant vines. But if they’re able to better utilize the resources they do have on hand—the soil, for example—they may be able to increase the quality of their products and make more terroir-driven wines. “What we need to do now is to continue studying each region in detail to fully understand it,” he says. 

Unlike those in Old World wine regions, producers in South America may not have centuries’ worth of knowledge about their vineyards. But geology is helping them gain a deeper understanding of their land and its possibilities. Already, high-quality bottlings have proved that knowledge is power. 

“The more information and data we have, the better decisions we can make,” says González. 

The post What Lies Beneath: How Geology Is Transforming South American Winemaking appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

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First, What is WSET?

The Wine & Spirit Education Trust is an awarding body and registered charity devoted to the development and delivery of qualifications and courses in wines and spirits. Established in 1969 for the U.K. wine trade, WSET has since grown to become the global industry leader. Our partnership with WSET allows us to provide wine education that is standardized throughout the world so your credentials will be universal.

What Will I Learn in WSET Level 1 and 2 Classes?

With WSET Level 1 certification, you’ll learn the basic types and styles of wine, as well as the characteristics of common wine grapes. You will also learn how to store and serve wine and the fundamentals of food and wine pairing. Finally, you’ll understand how to describe wine using the WSET Level 1 Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine® (SAT).

The WSET Level 2 certification delves even further into the world of wine. You’ll learn about all grape varieties alongside the ins and outs of the world’s major wine regions, as well as how to distinguish wine style and quality based on labels and wine terminology. Like WSET Level 1, you learn about food and wine pairing and proper tasting procedure using the Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine® (SAT). You’ll also be introduced to viticulture and vinification, which are the processes of growing grapes and making wine.

These can be tricky courses if not taught well, which is why it is critical to obtain them from a reputable WSET-approved provider. So, let’s get into why Wine Enthusiast Academy’s online wine classes are the way to go.

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#1: Wine Enthusiast Knows Wine

Wine Enthusiast has been the foremost authority on wine for more than 40 years, producing and providing high quality wine lifestyle products, content, and wine reviews through Wine Enthusiast. With over a dozen reviewers blind tasting thousands of wines each month and WSET-certified editors and sales consultants, we know wine from soil to glass.

The courses are led by Marshall Tilden III, DWS, CSW, Chief Revenue and Education Officer of Wine Enthusiast Commerce. He earned his Diploma in Wine and Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and is a Certified Specialist of Wine with the Society of Wine Educators.

“I tell all my students to ‘think while you drink.’ Learning about what’s in the glass and how to determine its quality and character helps you understand why you truly enjoy certain styles of wine over others,” says Tilden.

#2: WSET Boosts Your Wine Understanding (and Career!)

Everyone benefits from wine education, from casual wine drinkers who want to learn the basics to those who work or want to work in the wine industry. Everyday wine drinkers will gain a new appreciation for their favorite beverage as they learn how to select wines with confidence and discuss them with guests. Those who already work within the industry will gain a deeper understanding of the product they serve, sell and market, which can help boost their authority and sales.

#3: You Can Become a Wine Expert from Home

Once the class begins and you receive your login, you can complete the course modules at your own pace. There are no meetings aside from the scheduled exam date and time and the optional guided tasting that is included with your wine sampler purchase. And, as long as you have an internet connection, you can do your work wherever you please!

How to Start Getting WSET Certified

New courses are constantly being added to the calendar so, you can sign up for a class that best fits your personal schedule. Wine is fun and so is learning about it. Begin your wine education journey with Wine Enthusiast and learn whenever and wherever you want, at your own pace.

Hear more from Tilden about getting certified through Wine Enthusiast Academy in this brief recap:

The post 3 Reasons Why You Should Get WSET-Certified Through Wine Enthusiast Academy appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

The Stages of Development

In the best of vintages, the fruit ripens to the ideal plumpness, sweetness and pH on the vine, which leads to higher sugar levels. These wines will typically have higher alcohol levels, as there is more sugar for the yeast to consume during fermentation. This leads to the byproduct of alcohol. When fruit is so concentrated, it creates denser wines. Tannins also develop with more fervor, giving wines a bit more backbone to them. In these optimal vintages, there is enough of a diurnal temperature range such that mornings and nights are much cooler than the days. Acidity is properly developed.

So, in a nutshell, great vintages lead to high quality and a greater number of grapes grown. This in turn leads to a greater amount of wine with higher levels of concentrated fruit and desirable structural components.

On the contrary, cool, wet vintages can lead to grapes that experience a slower, or potentially lack of, development. Fruits may not reach their full concentration levels and tannins may get stuck in sort of a green phase. Lower fruit concentration also means lower alcohol levels.

However, the acidity can still remain high, as cooler climate wine regions are often known for their bright and refreshing high-acid wines. But just because all these structural levels are not turned to 11, it does not mean that wines produced in these vintages are destined to be of poor quality. It just means that they may not age as gracefully as those better vintage wines will.

Seek Out the Deals

Don’t get me wrong, producing top quality in poor vintages is no easy feat. But there are many wine producers who know exactly how to take fruit from a given harvest and coax out its best qualities.

Not only that, sometimes waiting for wines from the best vintages to age and evolve until they reach their peak can be a little… well… exhausting. Off-vintage wines can offer serious value to their prime vintage counterparts. So, if you are one of those collectors who can afford a 2005 Bordeaux or 2007 Napa Cab—as well as the patience to wait for them to age to perfection—more power to you. But for some, the value and drinkability of an off-vintage may provide a more enjoyable overall experience.

For example, I had a bottle of 2014 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from a well-known and respected producer in my cellar for a few years. I was waiting for the right moment and the right company to pop it open. When my folks came over for a roasted turkey dinner with all the trimmings, the opportunity was there to be seized. That year was a wet and cold vintage and was followed by two fabulous ones in the Southern Rhône. But with Pegau being one of the more consistent CDP producers in the region, I was willing to take my chances on popping it open on the early side.

While the wine was certainly on the vibrant and delicate side, it was drinking just beautifully in its infancy. Lovely black fruits, black pepper spice and dried herb aromas gave way to forest floor, mushroom and meaty flavors on the palate, with a finish that was long and lingering. The acidity kept the structure in perfect balance while the tannins were smooth as silk, making a perfect pairing for the bird and its many sides.

I recently had a similar experience when I had the opportunity to taste some Left Bank Bordeaux wines (including some of my favorite Grand Cru selections) from 2012, which was a less than stellar vintage in that region. The cool climate of that year brought about racy acidity, and because the fruit was not able to fully ripen, these wines exuded wonderful earthy, tobacco and cedar aromas with only a decade of aging. It can often take decades for those beautiful tertiary aromas and flavors to unveil themselves in many Bordeaux wines.

Could these wines have aged much longer? Absolutely, but the fruit will continue to turn more dried over time before it starts fading entirely. That means that depending on your palate, they may be less enjoyable as they continue to age. By opening my Châteauneuf-du-Pape on the early side, I was able to share a beautiful, complex and balanced wine with family members who truly enjoyed it. It was, in every sense, a regret-free bottle opening. What could be better?

The post Why Collectors Should Consider Less Impressive Vintages appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

As it turns out, even tiny ratios can make a noticeable splash—sometimes in surprising ways. Adding 1% Cabernet Franc, for instance, may give that floral burst you’ve been looking for, while a touch too much Viognier may overwhelm other aromas. Here’s how some vintners use small amounts of wine to great effect in a final blend.

1% Barbera for Length

To counter the softness, pink floral notes and tart fruit in her lighter-style 2019 Sangiovese, Meredith Sarboraria, winemaker for Rodrigue Molyneaux Winery in California’s Livermore Valley, used 2% Cabernet Sauvignon to add dark complexity and structure. But it’s the Barbera that makes sure the finish doesn’t stop short.

“Barbera added a touch of length to the finish,” says the winemaker. “But being a naturally acidic variety, adding more than 1% made it tart and astringent.” She adds that “too much can dilute the varietal characteristics or make it unrecognizable or disjointed.”

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1% Viognier for Fruitiness

A small amount of Viognier is often used in Côte-Rôtie red blends from the Northern Rhône to boost and stabilize Syrah’s inky color and tone down the tannins. In white wines, the same amount lends the grape’s heady floral and stone fruit characteristics, helping the final blend’s bouquet to blossom.

In the already perfumed 2018 Chêne Bleu Aliot from Provence, 1% of Viognier lends appealing notes of apricot, along with a touch of brioche and toasted almond. Inspiration for it struck a few years ago, when the team marveled at how switching out the Viognier for Roussanne in a flagship red completely changed the style. Freeing up the Viognier allowed them to experiment with it in Aliot. Because most of the Provence-based winery’s expressions are crafted for long aging, calibrating balance and harmony is paramount.

“With time, anything aromatically lopsided in the blend will be exacerbated, which could cause the wine to fall apart quite suddenly,” explains proprietor Nicole Rolet. “That’s why we spend so much time fiddling with smaller percentages that act as supporting cast.”

To control its aromatics, Viognier was blended in once the co-fermented base wine was complete. “We find Viognier to be an aromatically ‘alpha’ grape that can quickly overwhelm the other aromas,” Rolet says. “But a smidge will add some intrigue, complexity and nuance to a blend.”

1.5% Mazuelo (Carignan) for Spice

Sometimes a small amount of wine makes it into a blend because of happenstance. That was the case in the 2016 Bodegas Montecillo Crianza from Rioja. Winemaker García Rupérez always ferments each variety individually; however, that year, one of the Mazuelo, better known as Carignan, vineyards ripened too early. Since the rest of the harvest wasn’t quite ready, he ended up adding it to one tank of Tempranillo and then keeping it separate from the other wines during malolactic fermentation and barrel aging.

At the final tasting, the team was surprised to learn that the not only noticeably changed the wine, but improved it. As a result, they decided to add 1.5% Carignan into the final blend, which also contains 15% Garnacha.

“The result is a more aromatic wine, with a wonderfully spicy nose and a subtle pyrazine profile that was not present in other lots of pure Tempranillo,” Rupérez says.

1% Malbec for Juiciness

At J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, winemaker Brenden Wood develops the Hilltop Cabernet Sauvignon blends in several rounds, starting with a base of 100% Cab that’s concentrated but not overly tannic. Round two introduces several grapes vying to be minor players.

“We usually add 5% or 10% Malbec in a trial blend as a rough starting point, but almost always need to dial it back,” he explains. “We like the softness that Malbec brings to the palate, but the floral and red fruit aromas can be very overt.”

After that percentage has been perfected, the team moves on to Petit Verdot. Trial and error over the years have resulted in a go-to formula of two to three parts Petit Verdot for every part of Malbec. Cabernet Franc and Merlot are also on the table if needed.

The assembled blend is barrel-rested and racked once or twice, then revisited. Though Cabernet Franc may be added for freshness or Malbec for juiciness, adjustments this late in the game are always very small. For the 2021 vintage, they added 3% Petit Verdot and, critically, 1% Malbec, which the team refers to as “the friendly blender.”

“We value Malbec for its plush mouthfeel, low tannin concentration, red fruit and hibiscus aromatics,” Wood says. “But a little goes a long way—too much Malbec and the wine will taste like a fun red blend instead of Cabernet Sauvignon.”

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1% Cabernet Franc for Floral Quality

For each vintage of Bella Union Winery’s Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which also blends in other classic Bordeaux red grapes, winemaker Brooke Bobyak-Price carefully considers including other varieties “to uplift our wine and to best showcase our house style.”

In 2019, she turned to a tiny amount of Cabernet Franc, handpicked from a small parcel in their estate vineyard in Rutherford, to add a whiff of fresh-picked flowers. The blending process starts after the grapes are picked and brought to the winery.

“We assess each of the lots as the wines are fermented, and I begin thinking about how each component is going to fit together,” Bobyak-Price says. Varieties and vineyards are both possible variables, since the same grape planted in two different sites can show distinctive characteristics that offer unique attributes to a wine. “Location of vineyard, microclimate and soil type are main contributors to defining distinct varietal characteristics and is also something we consider when crafting our blends.”

Subsequent trials, tastings and fine-tunings can take up to a year before the blend is finalized. That year, she decided on 1% of Cabernet Franc to “naturally impart freshness and highlight its perfumed and lifted floral aromas that round out the Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend.”

The big takeaway? Don’t scoff the next time you see that a blend contains 1% of any given grape varietal. Even a small amount of wine can have an outsized impact when properly deployed.

The post When Blending Wine, Even 1% of a Varietal Can Have a Mighty Impact appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Everything that happens in a vineyard, from the rootstock and clones selected to the height of the vine and the size of its canopy, has been customized for its terroir and characteristics.

Cover crops, flora grown to enrich and enhance soil, used to be part of the terroir-driven approach to farm and grow grapes. However, for many years, they were either not used or treated as a one-size-fits-all way to boost soil health, limit erosion and boost biodiversity.

This was the result of a more industrial style of farming embraced during the mid-20th century. Wild grass and wildflowers suddenly seemed untidy and a sign of undisciplined growers. “Weeds” were out, replaced by chemically manicured strips of short, naked grass.

How times have changed.

Over the past decade, extreme weather has impacted harvests across the globe, and chemical treatments have increasingly been swapped for growing other crops in the vineyard to combat climate change.

These growers are refining their approaches and identifying cover crops that work for their particular climate, soils and winemaking goals.

Bordeaux, France: Planting Trees in the Vineyard to Amplify Cooling Effect

Bordeaux is France’s largest AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) with 274,000 acres of grapes under vine. Merlot, considered the world’s most vulnerable grape to climate change, accounts for more than 66% of red grape acreage.

In recent years, sudden frosts, hailstorms, droughts and extreme heat have devastated harvests. In 2021, spring frosts cost the French wine industry an estimated $2.1 billion.

Bordeaux’s winemakers are responding. More than 75% of growers are now certified sustainable, up from 65% in 2019, according to the Bordeaux Wine Council. Many growers combat the effects of extreme weather with innovative approaches to cover crops.

At Château La Clotte-Cazalis, Marie-Pierre Lacoste knew she had to take extreme measures.

“We produce mostly Sauternes here, which is a sweet wine, but it still needs balance,” she says. “The warming climate was making the grapes lose some of their aromatic freshness, and we were having trouble balancing the good mold of botrytis with the bad mold.”

In 2015, she began to plant cover crops dominated by legumes and cereals. She also allowed the grass and native plants to grow wild. Almond, apple, cherry, peach and pear trees were also cultivated in the vineyard.

“We planted trees every 12 rows,” says Lacoste. “We farm organically without chemicals, and all of the trees and cover crops that we bring in are native to the region. The cover crops keep the soil cool, increase fertility and health of the soil and the vines. [They also] boost aromas, freshness and acidity in the grapes, while also reducing humidity, which helps take care of the bad molds.”

By using cover crops in tandem with the vineyard trees, Lacoste says the effects are amplified, and her grapes “balance and fresh aromas have returned.”

Champlain Valley, Vermont: Using Cover Crops to Highlight Terroir  

Grape-growing in Vermont is still fairly new, though winemaking has existed in some form since the 19th century. The state’s first commercial winery, Snow Farm Winery, opened in 1997.

La Garagista’s Deirdre Heekin has 11 acres of hybrid grapes like Frontenac Gris and Marquette under vine in the Champlain Valley and at her Barnard estate. She began to use cover crops in 2008 as she prepared new vineyards and began to convert others from synthetic to regenerative farming.

“I have planted covers of clover, buckwheat, sweet pea, vetch, daikon and winter rye,” she says. “Winter rye was used as a cover crop seeded in the fall for early-spring sprouting. The other covers I used were seeded together or individually, depending on what was needed.”

Daikon radish helps naturally till her clay-heavy soil and boosts soil health. In the past decade, she’s discovered how each plant targets problems in the field.

“The cover crops keep the soil cool, increase fertility and health of the soil and the vines.”— Marie-Pierre Lacoste, winemaker, Château La Clotte-Cazalis

“Dandelion works like daikon,” says Heekin. “I love working with buckwheat because it’s a quick cover in our short growing season, and it breaks down quickly [to feed] the soil readily. Its blossoms attract pollinators and other beneficial insects. Clover works well here because it is an easy nitrogen fixer and it is lower-growing, which can be a benefit for under-vine flora, as we don’t do any cultivation under vine. Vetch can work in the same way.”

The cover crops have had some unexpected benefits.

“We find that working with the native plants imprints something very specific on the wines, like a garrigue,” says Heekin. “In one of our vineyards, the plants grow up into the canopy, things like purple aster, daisy fleabane and goldenrod, which are full of essential oils that are antifungal and antimicrobial. In tandem with our spray program, which utilizes plant teas made from plants in the vineyard and homeopathic doses of minerals, these native plants help keep the vines healthy from diseases like mildews and anthracnose, black rot. And those essential oils seem to also infuse the fruit with a character and sense of place.”

Alentejo, Portugal: Curating Native Crops for Soil Fertility, Erosion Control

Portugal’s Alentejo region has faced crippling heat waves and droughts that have reduced harvest by 50% in some places. Alentejo has 56,500 acres of grapes under vine and a regional eco-certification known as Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Program.

Launched in 2015, the program has 483 members that represent about 50% of the acreage.

The group seeks to tackle environmental challenges, reduce reliance on chemicals and institute greener farming with biodiversity initiatives that include cover crops.

Producers like Herdade do Esporão, which has about 1,600 acres under vine, experiments with 180 or so grape varieties across an experimental plot to find which withstand heat and drought best. It also employs organic growing methods and cover crops.

“About 15 years ago, we began using cover crops to avoid the need to till,” says winemaker Sandra Alves. “We were becoming increasingly concerned about the environment, and we found that the cover crops improve soil fertility and also control erosion and boost biodiversity.”

The team has experimented with both permanent and temporary cover crops, sown with a single or several plant species.

“We’ve adapted our strategy after finding that planting commercial seed mixtures sometimes contained invasive species,” says Alves. They began to seek out promising, native cover crops on the estate. They now focus on native crops like subterranean clover, barrel light, snail medick and tall fescue, chosen with production goals and the many soil types on the estate.

Trentino, Alto Adige: A Diverse Mix for Optimal Vine Health

Italy’s Alto Adige region has around 5,000 winegrowers that grow grapes across 13,700 acres. Currently, only about 7% of its plantings are certified organic, but Alto Adige Wines hopes to change that. Its set a 2030 Alto Adige Wine Agenda that includes a ban on synthetic herbicides, optimizing water management and improving soil health.

Certified organic Thomas Niedermayr’s Hof Gandburg has 12.4 acres of vines across seven sites. In each place, cover crops are utilized for a specific purpose, says Thomas Niedermayr, a winemaker and grower.

“We use leguminous crops like field beans and sweet peas [that] draw in nitrogen from the air and enrich the soil,” he says. “We use leguminous grasses like alfalfa and melilot to fix nitrogen and improve drainage, which helps bring oxygen and water deep down into the roots.

“They also attract beneficial insects and provide nectar and forage, especially for bees,” he says. “While they grow up to five meters high and can compete with the vine, they also absorb minerals, which are then available for the vines.”

Cruciferous plants like canola and mustard provide ground cover and shade, feed insects and leave biomass that nourishes the soil. Herbs like caraway, wild carrot and phacelia attract beneficial insects and break down phosphorus in the soil. Niedermayr also plants sunflowers, buckwheat and grains to absorb minerals like copper and help improve drainage.

“The great diversity of roots influences nutrient availability and supports the overall vitality of the vine,” says Niedermayr.

Burgenland, Austria: Combatting Heat Spikes, Drought with Careful Cover

In Austria, the rapidly warming climate is threatening its trademark grape, Grüner Veltliner. On average, temperatures have risen more than than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Austria since 1880, outpacing the global average of 1.9 degrees. The Austrian Winegrowers Association unveiled a certification in 2015 that rates producers on their use of chemicals, biodiversity, soil fertility and more.

For Franz Weninger, who farms Weingut Weninger biodynamically, terroir-driven cover crop choices are a foundational aspect of his plan to withstand higher temperatures and lower rainfalls. Weninger uses a range of native herbs, legumes and grasses.

He’s become so invested in the project that he has created a cover crop seed bank suitable for a variety of growing regions and soil types. He hopes to make the seeds commercially available soon.

“With cover crops, I copy what a cow eats,” says Weninger. “We have a blend of 60% grass, 30% legumes and 10% herbs. And because I want my wine to taste of my place, I use native plants.

“Terroir, in many ways, comes down to the microbes and yeast found in a particular place. A diverse cover crop will create more complexity in the glass.”

It took time for him to get the right balance.

“[With] too many herbs and too much grass…my wine gets thinner and with more structure,” he says. “That is nice for ageable wines. But for drinkable wines, you want less of that.”

There might be too much of a good thing with cover crops. In the spring, he often removes or reduces the height of his cover crops so the vines don’t have to compete with water or energy.

Napa, California: Every Vintage Requires a New Blend  

Napa is contending with warmer temperatures and devastating wild fires, not to mention long-term drought (on average, the California growing season has warmed 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit between 1895 and 2018, according to the Napa Vintage Report).

The region, home to 40% of the state’s certified sustainable wineries, according to Napa Green, includes cover crops in its tactics to hinder climate change.

Kirk Grace, director of vineyard operations at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, tries to mimic nature as best he can.

“I use vines as our overstory, and a grassland cover crop as the understory,” he says. “We have found that short-statured annual grasses are often best for us. They help enrich the soil, giving the microbes something to feed on. That community of healthy organisms populate the soil and attract other healthy forms of life.”

Without the cover crop, he says that the soil becomes “sterile, especially when chemical use gets out of hand. Excessive tilling can worsen the health of the soil, but because nature abhors a vacuum, tougher weeds and microorganisms move in. It becomes a vicious cycle, with soil that becomes increasingly degraded.”

Grace says that cover crops reduce erosion, aerate soil, aid with water penetration and keep the community of microbes healthy, but each type offers something slightly different.

“A diverse cover crop will create more complexity in the glass.“— Franz Weininger, winemaker, Weininger Weingut

“We customize our strategy every year, depending on what’s happening,” says Grace. “Biomass-producing crops, like peas and beans, will fix nitrogen and invigorate the soil. Maintenance cover crops, like annual grasses and clovers, are intended to maintain vineyards in their current state. Devigorating cover crops like perennial grasses are intended to throttle back over-vigorous vines.”

Cover crops won’t make or break a vineyard. But in a more extreme environment, they can provide a foundation for health and help create more precise, terroir-driven wines. They also make growers see the vines in a completely new way.

“If a new plant arrives on the scene, it can forecast things we may need to be aware of to provide the best care in the vineyard that we can,” says Heekin. “Certain plants thriving in certain soils might tell us we need to do something like apply compost. These native covers always offer the solutions we need. We just need to be attentive enough and do our homework on what these plants mean in the vineyard landscape.”

The post The Rise of Micro-Managed Cover Crops in the Battle Against Climate Change appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Raising an Orphan by the Name of Carmenère

Carmenère disappeared from its native Bordeaux following the phylloxera outbreak in the mid-1800s. It was considered practically extinct until a fateful visit to Chile from French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot in November 1994.

As he walked through vineyards in Maipo, he noticed a small detail to some Merlot vines. A twisted stamen, to be precise. It revealed that these vines were, in fact, the long-disappeared variety of Carmenère.

That vineyard wasn’t unique. The variety had been unwittingly planted throughout Chile’s wine regions for almost 150 years. Carmenère had arrived in Chile in the 1850s along with a shipload of other varieties from Bordeaux. It had been planted around the country as “Merlot.”

With Boursiquot’s discovery, Chile suddenly became the heartland of a variety which no one had knowingly vinified for more than 100 years.

The revelation was not a surprise for many of Chile’s winemakers.

“We all called [our Merlot] ‘Merlot Chileno,’ because everyone knew something was different compared to the normal Merlot vines,” says winemaker Sebastian Labbé. He makes wine from the same Maipo vineyard where Boursiquot made the 1994 discovery, belonging to Viña Carmen and Santa Rita. “After the discovery, there was a long process of profiling all the Merlot vineyards around Chile at the time to see if they were Merlot or, in fact, Carmenère.”

The wineries of Santa Rita and Viña Carmen were quick to rename their Merlot bottlings as “Grand Vidure,” a synonym for Carmenère used in Bordeaux in the 19th century. However, it took a while for the greater industry to accept the new identity of its “Merlot Chileno.”

“We wanted to export our wine as Carmenère, but it was almost impossible at the beginning,” says winemaker Marco De Martino, whose family winery was the first to export the wine in 1996. “The government wouldn’t let us export it with Carmenère on the label because the variety still wasn’t legally recognized in Chile… So we had to use clever labeling, like ‘Cuvée Carmenère,’ until we managed to successfully argue for legal registration of the variety.”

Although some wineries embraced the new variety, many others remained in denial. Merlot was more lucrative and internationally appealing than the previously abandoned Carmenère. Some simply continued to bottle their Carmenère as “Merlot” well into the early 2000s.

In 1997, only 815 acres of the variety were registered on the official census. That number has steadily increased to 26,760 acres today. As Malbec took its position as the signature variety of neighboring Argentina, Carmenère began to be seen as Chile’s adopted protégée. But as Carmenère’s presence grew, producers faced a challenge: What is Carmenère, and how should it taste?

Although Carmenère had been rescued in Chile, its true journey of discovery was about to begin.

Growing Pains

“When we first started making Carmenère, knowing it was Carmenère, we didn’t know how to make it,” says Terranoble winemaker Marcelo Garcia. At their estate in Maule, more than half of their presumed Merlot vines proved to be Carmenère.

“But after several years of experimenting, we began to learn how to treat it in the vineyard,” he says. “We used to irrigate our Carmenère the same amount as our Merlot, for example, which is about once a week in the growing season… But we actually [learned] that Carmenère needs a lot less water, no more than once a month.”

This was a common mistake in those early days. It led to overly vigorous vines and a common green character in the wines. That led winemakers to explore extreme solutions.

“Because it had all these green flavors, we focused on harvesting really late to try to force it out through ripeness, with lots of leaf plucking, too,” says Francisco Baettig, winemaker at Viña Errazuriz in Aconcagua. The result, a common occurrence in the early 2000s, was a combination of both green jalapeño notes and a ripe, jammy fruit profile.

Not only were changes the irrigation and vineyard management key to Carmenère’s new identity, but ripeness is also fundamental.

“We used to harvest our Carmenère in May, with 15% ABV (alcohol by volume), and yet it would still have that cooked vegetal note like artichokes, says Baettig. “Today, though, we harvest at least a month earlier and at 13.5%, which gives us a lot more ageability and freshness with a typical spicy note, but no greenness.”

The wines of today are increasingly balanced, fresh and fragranced. This is thanks in part to finding the right sites with poorer rocky soils, rather than the heavy clay soils where Merlot is best suited.

Regions like Apalta, Marchigüe, Peumo and Maipo Andes are among the hot spots for top Carmenère. Producers that include Santa Rita, Carmen, Undurraga, Errazuriz, De Martino, Tabalí and Bouchon are keen proponents of this new style.

Greater balance is also being achieved through winemaking. “We do a cold maceration to get the aromas and colors without extracting the tannins, because we want a juicy finish, but still with all the color and aroma intensity,” says Felipe Müller, the winemaker at Tabalí who makes ‘Micas’ Carmenère in Peumo.

In addition to gentler extraction, recent years have seen producers use less new oak. Modern interpretations focus on fresh fruit expression and embrace a livelier, peppery style.

While it may have been confused for Merlot for many years, Chile’s Carmenère shows more similarities to Cabernet Franc in style. And as Cab Franc emerges as the new darling of Bordeaux varieties, perhaps it’s finally time for Carmenère’s moment in the sun.

Not only is this modern style of Carmenère ahead of the game, but it could hold an advantage with the changing climate.

“Carmenère is probably the Bordeaux variety that best survives the drought,” says Christian Sepúlvida, winemaker at Bouchon Family Wines in Maule. “So we’ve been using more Carmenère in our top Bordeaux blend, Mingre, over the years.”

Could climate change lead to a renaissance for Carmenère beyond Chile? There’s potential for it. Chile’s winemakers have laid down the groundwork for this serendipitous Bordeaux variety, and it’s paved an exciting new path for the future.

The post Rediscovering Chilean Carmenère appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Looking to buy wine, beer or spirits from an online retailer like Amazon? It’s illegal in almost every state.

Welcome to the three-tier system, the almost 90-year-old set of laws that governs how wine, beer and spirits are sold in the United States. Each state has its own laws, and if that’s not complicated enough, some state laws differ by county. It’s outdated, complicated and so confusing that it requires a special type of attorney to navigate its intricacies.

“Yes, in the modern age, it may certainly have outlived its usefulness,” says Sean O’Leary, former chief legal counsel for the Illinois Liquor Commission. “But when Prohibition ended, it seemed like the best way to protect a state that wanted more strict laws and for its citizens to have less access to alcohol.”

Prohibition, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was enacted in 1920. It banned the sale, manufacture and transport of alcohol in the U.S. until its repeal 13 years later, by the 21st Amendment.

The key to repeal Prohibition? Allow each state to do what it thought best. Dry states could remain dry, and wet states could sell alcohol again. The system was also designed to keep organized crime out of the liquor business, which it had controlled during Prohibition.

As the name implies, the system is made up of three tiers. Producers, the first tier, can only sell their product to distributors. Distributors represent the second tier, and they can only sell to retailers and restaurants, which make up the final tier.

Except for limited exceptions, like direct shipping for wine, which account for less than 10% of all wine sales, consumers can only buy alcohol from a retailer or restaurant.

There are a seemingly countless number of local regulations. These set anything from operating hours, restriction of sales by certain businesses, and even citizenship requirements to obtain a retail license.

That the system worked so well for so long is one reason why it’s still around today. After all, when’s the last time you’ve encountered a mob-run speakeasy? This doesn’t mean there haven’t been attempts to change it.

A 2005 Supreme Court decision loosened restrictions around buying directly from wineries. California now allows in-state producers to sell directly to restaurants and retailers. The states of Washington and Colorado have made it easier for grocers to get liquor licenses.

But the heart and soul of the three-tier system remains as it has since 1933, and federal courts regularly reaffirm its primacy.

“Since [the 21^st Amendment] specifically authorized each state to regulate the sale and use of alcohol within its borders after Prohibition, judges have allowed three-tier to withstand the sort of federal judicial scrutiny that might be applied in other areas,” says Seth Weinberg, a New York City attorney whose practice includes a focus on food and beverage companies that includes alcohol.

This is why there really aren’t national liquor store chains in the same manner that there are national supermarket chains. Such liquor stores couldn’t exist in the so-called “control states” like Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where the state owns the liquor stores.

It’s also impractical. A chain must have a licensed warehouse in each state where it operates, and it can only buy alcohol from distributors in that state. Compare that to Walmart, which has 42 massive regional distribution centers for nonalcoholic products that can ship to and from wherever and whenever it wants.

But the peculiarities don’t stop there.

If a producer doesn’t have a distributor in a state, it can’t sell its product there. A wine for sale in northern Illinois might not be available just mere feet across the border in southern Wisconsin. It’s a huge handicap for artisan wineries and craft distillers and brewers, which are usually too small to attract a distributor.

“It may certainly have outlived its usefulness.”— Sean O’Leary, former chief legal counsel, Illinois Liquor Commission

Some states, like Texas, are a hodgepodge of regulation. Parts of east and west Texas remain dry, while Houston, Austin and San Antonio are wet. In Dallas, liquor stores aren’t allowed in one part of the city, but they’re welcome in another.

Direct shipping, where consumers buy directly from a producer, is illegal almost everywhere in regards to beer and spirits. And though 45 states allow residents to buy wine from producers in other states, state laws vary considerably. There may be limits on how much wine that consumers can buy, for example. Since these laws can be so different, some producers don’t even bother. They don’t believe it’s not practical to keep up with 10 sets of state laws.

The U.S. Postal Service is forbidden by law to ship alcohol. This gives carriers like UPS and FedEx a virtual monopoly over what little consumer shipping does take place. Hence, U.S. shipping costs can be estimated at as much as 30 times higher than in the European Union.

The post The Highs and Woes of Alcohol’s Three-Tier System appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Over the past few years, winemakers have come to rely heavily on this grape because of its intensity and dark color. But that doesn’t mean Petit Verdot is without its challenges like, yes, the intensity, deep hue, and worst of all, propensity to soak in smoke.

Petit Verdot is extremely prone to smoke taint, which has been a growing problem of late, most notably in 2020.

“In 2020, the [Glass] fire did not get to our property, and thanks to the wind direction we didn’t have a lot of smoke, says Bryan Kane, who makes a 100% Petit Verdot for Howell Mountain Vineyards. “We did not get much smoke influence on the grapes, except for Petit Verdot — it’s a smoke soaker — so we don’t have any 2020 [vintage], but the rest of the vintage was one of our best ever overall.”

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) has published studies in relationship to baseline levels of the phenolic compounds (health-benefitting phytochemicals) associated with smoke taint, and varieties like Petit Verdot and Syrah already produce high concentrations of these compounds, which means you’re most likely to taste the smoke in these grapes than others.

“Our Petit Verdot is approachable and very complex and aromatic, with a more floral profile,” says Laura Diaz Munoz, winemaker and general manager of Ehlers Estate in St. Helena, California. “It is true that Petit Verdot, like Syrah, has a propensity to express smoke taint even at lower levels of exposure, as they produce and accumulate the same compounds even when not exposed to smoke.”

Because of this, winemakers like Diaz Munoz say they will analyze for smoke taint markers even during years when fires aren’t a threat, hoping to create a database of base levels for her varieties in her specific site, so she’s able to make more informed decisions when grapes are exposed to smoke.

Still, its charms tend to outweigh its challenges.

“It’s a nice somm wine,” notes Bryan Kane. “We tend to get even berry size at elevation, the color is fantastic, it’s purple in tank right from the beginning and the tannins are why people use it in blends. You don’t need a lot of it to get the structure.”

Karen Williams, owner of Acme Fine Wines in St. Helena, explains further.

“The namesake ‘petit’ is associated with the small berries which have higher skin-to-juice ratio, which results in more tannins and deeper hues.”

At her wine shop, she doesn’t often have requests for varietal Petit Verdot, though she has carried some in the past, including Cerro, made by Derek Beitler and sourced from the Cerrito Vineyard in Rutherford, which Williams describes as “not for the faint of heart,” and another from Gibbs sourced in Yountville.

“When we sit down to taste with winemakers here in Napa,” she continues, “we commonly hear that within their spice rack of blending varieties, Petit Verdot carries a similar gustatory job as black pepper. Too much is overbearing and can mask the delicate nuances.”

Jarvis Estate on Atlas Peak also produces a 100% Petit Verdot, as does Boeschen Vineyards and Mira Winery, Thirty-Seven, St. Supéry, Battuello, DRNK and Decades5. It also makes up a sizable percentage of iconic wines, including Beaulieu’s Georges de Latour Private Reserve and Dominus Estate.

There are roughly 700 acres of Petit Verdot in the Napa Valley, according to the 2020 California Grape Report published by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Compare that to the approximately 21,000 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, the region’s dominant grape.

“Petit Verdot is a late-ripening variety,” confirms Diaz Munoz. “Farming-wise, that is the more challenging aspect, on top of the yield variability due to its being overly sensitive during flowering, to humidity or winds. Flowers can fail to develop, and yields drop substantially some years.”

But, if conditions are good during flowering, Diaz Munoz says they can get the opposite — high yields and less concentration if they don’t drop fruit. Since Petit Verdot produces three clusters per shoot, it’s even more important that yields are adjusted.

All the coddling required of this variety — on top of climate change and fires — means Petit Verdot needs to be grown in the right place and given the right attention to be worthwhile, which is why there is so little of it in a place like the Napa Valley and why it costs so much per ton.

Still, some will find it worth the hassle and persist. Diaz Munoz, for one, feels good about the winery’s estate site and plans to continue growing it and showcasing it in a varietal bottling, even if that means contending with smoke taint.

“Our soils have between 35 to 65% gravel, which allows good drainage,” she explains. “We are in the narrowest point in the valley, with soils that are not as deep. Mixing this up with warm temperatures and good drainage, we get a little bit of stress in the vines that is beneficial to achieve full ripeness.”

The Ehlers Estate Petit Verdot ripens properly in these conditions and achieves good color, softer tannins and more floral, fruity aromatics. The two blocks on site are the last ones picked, usually in late October, tacking on additional risk.

But if you want to try something different, something intensely colored and robust, try a Petit Verdot on its own. There may be fewer chances to do so down the road.

The post Amid Smoke and Climate Change, Napa Embraces an Imperfect Red Grape appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

In 1992, some of the world’s oldest wine regions were born. Again.

Nomenclature and Geography

The Soviet Union (1922–1991): Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Eastern Bloc (1947–1991): Soviet satellite states in Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania), Asia (Cambodia, China, Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Vietnam), Cuba, plus Nicaragua and Grenada.

Wine Behind the Iron Curtain

Decades earlier, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had sought global dominance for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) through accelerated industrialization. He seized private farms and consolidated them into large, state-run cooperatives, in part to feed industrial workers. Any resistance was stamped out through economic pressure, resettling and deportation.

State control of property, production and products meant that vines or other crops could be uprooted and replaced with anything, at any time. Any goods produced must be sold at low cost to the state. Distribution was limited to Soviet states and their allies. And perhaps most damaging to wine production, quantity was valued far more than quality.

Farmers were allowed to keep small lots for personal use. Unless you knew a home winemaker, though, your wine was generally made in large volumes from high-harvest vineyards and offered average quality at best. Cleanliness of cellars was questionable. Sometimes, water was added to dilute the wines.

Jan Stávek, Ph.D., a fourth-generation winemaker in the Czech Republic, recalls that his grandfather and father aged wine in glass demijohns because large cellar barrels had dried up from lack of use. Reduced to hobby-like production, regional farmers throughout the Eastern Bloc were responsible for keeping local grapes alive.

“Every malovinař [artisan] worked to determine the most suitable varieties for the local terroir,” says Stávek. Some even held contests to compare products and encourage quality.

The Impact of 1992, 30 Years Later

Many vineyards and production facilities in the former Eastern Bloc were in poor shape. After the fall of communism, some could not compete without state subsidies. Many closed and sold what they could, often to neighbors who sought commercial success.

Restitution of private land complicated finances. It was hard to move forward, especially for those who experienced retaliation or a relatively high standard of living due to job security and cooperative success.

Stávek co-founded the Czech Young Winemakers Association to help break the influence that communist practices had on winemaking, like to prioritize low production costs or discourage national styles and diversity. Stávek was 10 years old when his family reopened their winery and slowly began to reclaim their land.

“The time after the revolution was very uncertain,” says Stávek. “Fear created by communism still prevailed.”

The co-op in his village still operates, owned by about 60 families that surrendered land to establish it decades ago. Across the former Eastern Bloc, many co-op members work by choice, managing themselves. Others simply lease their land to the co-op.

The breakup of collective farms was problematic, particularly in terms of ownership. In some cases, it continues to be an issue. However, the wines being made are achieving international appreciation.

Many attribute this success to the biodynamic practices, the use of indigenous grapes, upgrades to facilities, health and sanitation inspections and a connection with international peers.

“It was necessary to rebuild or to change everything a bit,” says Zoltán Kovács, wine director at Royal Tokaji Wine Company, founded in 1990. That year, Hungary and the European Union began to subsidize the wine industry through grants to develop infrastructure, vineyards, education and marketing.

“The wine region wasn’t a lost land,” says Kovács. The third-generation Transylvanian-Hungarian winemaker says that the basic vine growing and production practices of today came from that time. Kovács says that Royal Tokaji uses some grape clones bred during the communist era, suitable for botrytis.

The Tokaji (Tokay) wine region’s most famous style, Aszú, has been on record since 1571. The region itself was classified in 1732. Since 1920, the region has been divided between Hungary and what’s now Slovakia. Slovaks follow their own Tokaji-making rules.

The post-World War II years between 1945 and 1989 nearly destroyed any linkage to the wines once so renowned and popular with royals. Like other Soviet satellites, Hungary’s wineries became state run and dedicated to volume.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, isolated winemakers needed to connect with global peers, be receptive to advances in science, technology and ideas, and to embrace quality.

They also needed to convince consumers all of this was happening.

Investment and Infrastructure

These newly liberated Eastern European winemakers needed money. Growth through profits was challenging and slow. It proved a major hinderance to the ongoing emergence of these “new” wines. By contrast, foreign investment could quickly infuse the winemakers with badly needed cash. Markets opened, and the West saw opportunity.

“The time after the revolution was very uncertain.” —Jan Stávek, fourth-generation Czechoslovakian winemaker.

As both new and resurrected private companies acquired land, cultivated vineyards, built wineries and crafted a wide assortment of wines, they attracted business partners from abroad, says winemaker Bondo Kalandadze. He has more than five decades of experience in the Georgian wine industry, said to date back at least 8,000 years.

For more than 20 years, Kalandadze worked for Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture under communist rule.

While some producers achieved rapid success after 1992, things did not improve quickly for all.

“For some, it is an ongoing process,” said Kovács. Tokaji was in a good position, and foreign ownership came fast. But its distance from Budapest and the western border limited initial demand.

The Benefits of Open Borders

Many former Eastern Bloc winemakers traveled to established Western wine regions to learn all they could. Armed with knowledge, they returned home and put it to practice. “The industry skyrocketed,” says Stávek.

This boom included variety. In Russia, says Kalandadze, the most popular wines were once semi-sweet and Port-style wines. Suddenly, there was demand for dry wines, sparklers and more.

Miljenko (aka Mike) Grgich, a fourth-generation Croatian winemaker, studied oenology before he left then communist-ruled Yugoslavia, and landed in Napa Valley in 1958. He founded Grgich Hills Estate. A Chateau Montelena Chardonnay made under his direction won 1976’s legendary Judgment of Paris blind tasting. In the 1990s, he returned to his homeland, now Croatia, to found Grgić Vina.

Ivo Jeramaz, head of production for Grgich in both countries, says it was impossible to find equipment in Croatia. So they shipped temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks from the U.S. This was a first for a country where wine has been made since the 5^th-century B.C.

Team Grgich introduced their peers to “new” vineyard management and production methods. They recommended practices like the addition of cooling technology to wineries and tanks, and to change oak barrels every few years. Jeramaz was impressed by how the industry improved.

“The impact of a fast-learning curve, much faster than in California, and E.U. investments make today’s wine [rise to] a world-class level,” he says.

Winemakers also had access to modern packaging including labels. It allowed their products to be shown at international exhibitions and sold abroad.

“It was exciting to be part of,” says Kalandadze. In 1993, Kalandadze launched Georgian Wines & Spirits as part of a group that included Levan Gachechiladze, who ran for president of Georgia in 2008. Not only does the company produce wine, but it was also the country’s first private wine exporter.

In the past five years, exports to the U.S. have increased. “Even more significant is the increase of the average price per bottle,” says Mirena Bagur of Boston-based Croatian Premium Wine Imports Inc.

Today, says Kalandadze, “our main challenges are to constantly tend to our vineyards, to ensure the highest quality grapes to reach the wineries, and to continue to grow new markets.”

Or, put another way, they’re embracing opportunities that have only been possible since 1992.

The post How the Fall of the Soviet Union Changed Wine Forever appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

While loam-based soils are the backbone to some of the most fertile vineyards on the planet, knowing how to farm them—and above all, prune their vines—is key. 

Sadie Drury, a Walla Walla Valley-based vineyard manager who manages over 300 acres of land in the Pacific Northwest, describes loam as a mix of sand, silt and clay.

“Loam soils generally have decent water holding capacity but are often well-draining, especially series [or types of soils] with less clay content,” she says, and notes that loam is known for being highly fertile and relatively easy to farm. 

However, easy doesn’t always mean simple. Dan O’Brien, founder and winemaker of Gail Wines, notes that vines cultivated in loam soils often require a good amount of attention. “Prune, prune, prune,” he says. “Otherwise, your fruit will lack complexity.” 

When farmed at lower yields, loam soils can add richness and density to wines’ texture, O’Brien says. 

Loam has a high capacity for water retention, but paying attention to productivity is crucial, says Thomas Savre, winemaker at Lingua Franca. “If fertility is too high, then excess vigor can become detrimental to a wine’s quality,” he says. 

Loam soils are often found in warmer-climate regions, O’Brien says, like the inland valleys of northern California.

“In Napa, you will most likely find Cabernet Sauvignon planted in loam soils,” he says. “Though on the other side of the Mayacamas in the Sonoma Valley, Merlot also does very well.” 

Drury agrees, and adds that many grape varieties can thrive in loam.

“I would argue that many grape varieties do well in all loam series where rainfall is not abundant because irrigation is easily controlled, and the soils are nutritious without being overly vigorous,” she says. In her experience, Cabernet thrives in the more sandy loam soils, whereas Syrah does better in heavier silt loams. “Loam soils can create really balanced, intense and beautiful wines if irrigation and nutrition is handled correctly.”

While the Syrah from France’s Northern Rhône grows in granite, in Australia’s Barossa Valley, where it’s known as Shiraz, it thrives in loam-based soils. When farmed carefully, these soils create the backbone for the region’s plush, full-bodied wines with powerful, fruit-forward flavors.

The post Understanding Loam Soil in Wine appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.