The National Wine
UnClub
Newsletter
TASTE OF THE EARTH
There is a famous French saying repeated oftimes in serious viticultural circles and occasionally heard at special tastings of the world's most glorious wines: 'gout de terroir' (goo deh tare war) which literally means 'taste of the earth'. However, what is implied is not always that well understood by most wine enthusiasts, let alone the general public.
Perhaps it would be best to tell a story to illustrate what gout de terroir is all about. What most readily comes to mind is from the recent television mini-series depiction of the Greek poet Homer's famous epic about love, war, loss, endurance, and sweet homecomings, known to us in the West as "The Odyssey".
The hero of The Odyssey was Ulysses, king of Ithaca, a tiny coastal island of Greece. After nearly twenty years of wandering the tempestuous Mediterranean Sea and the perilous surrounding lands following the Greek victory over the Trojans, Ulysses is finally placed on his island kingdom's shores by friendly Phoenician sailors. As he walks into the nearby hills he suspects but doesn't dare let himself believe that he is truly home.
Upon reaching a shepherd's daycamp, Ulysses is recognized by the old servant but he still won't allow himself to believe he is home at last. He sits down in the shepherd's tent without a word and begins to taste of the simple meal of bread, cheese, and wine laid out upon a straw mat. As he eats the peasant bread, sheep's milk cheese, and drinks the rustic red wine, a light of recognition dawns in Ulysses' weary eyes. "This is the food and drink of my beloved Ithaca... I am home at last!"
Not until Ulysses had sampled the wine and food produced on Ithaca, the island of his birth and upbringing, did he fully realize his homecoming. He trusted more than anything the taste of the earth, the gout de terroir, so plainly evident in the provenance set before him that fateful day.
The entire reason for the creation of the world-respected French "Appellation Controlee" laws (which have been copied in many wine regions around the globe) has to do primarily with the importance of 'place' to excellence in viticulture. This is not just relative to the type of topsoil and substrata found in a vineyard district, but is also a topographical consideration as well. The 'lay of the land' is just as essential to a wine's gout de terroir. And, because a region's topography affects weather patterns in subtle ways, this concept also encompasses the climate issue so important to fine wine production.
In today's commercially-oriented world of processed, prepackaged foods there is a growing danger of the unintentional dismissal and eventual loss of the original aromas and flavors associated with basic foods. Everyone in the West has experienced the disappointment of eating a beautiful yet tasteless hothouse tomato purchased at the local grocery store. 'White' bread and 'American-processed' cheese fall into this same category of experience. Home-grown, hand-made is best we now say, because thetaste comparison leaves no doubt.
Wines that are produced from overcropped grapes that are grown in heavily irrigated, chemically-fertilized soils are just as bland tasting as that store-bought tomato or processed cheese but, in this case, very people know the difference, having only been exposed while growing up in this country to the innocuous wines of mega-producers like Gallo, Almaden, and Paul Masson.
Premium, small-production wines defy 'standardization' of this sort however. There may be a fairly consistent 'house' style achieved by careful vineyard management and using the same types of yeast, oak, and blending techniques. But each famous vineyard region has something more, something that is 'greater than the sum of its parts' that is given to the potential wine by Mother Earth.
It is more than 'house style' that gives Chardonnay grown in the Burgundy district of France its ethereal character. Compare these wines with wines made from the same varietal grown in Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas and you'll begin to see a pattern emerging that's truly startling. All the wines taste like Chardonnay, but each has unique qualities that express the particular distinction of the original vineyard site.
The same can be experienced with any other premium grape varietal nurtured into wine form by a respectful vigneron who wishes to let the fruit be a natural expression of its heritage and environment. In fact, the most sought-after wines in today's market are those produced from special lots of superb fruit grown in relatively tiny vineyards that are tended with the utmost loving care. These wines can easily fetch prices of $100 or more the day of their initial release to the market.
It is perhaps too much to hope for to think of returning to the simpler times of ancient Greece where the mere taste of your wine evokes memories of your homeland. But we can begin to seek out and appreciate the gout de terroir of the wines now abundantly available to us from around this fruitful planet. We can learn to recognize natural wines 'of the earth' as opposed to purely commercial offerings that really have very little true taste. We can 'come home' to the diversity of genuine taste that is currently ours to enjoy!
Cheers! ~ Donald W. White