Great Wine Made Simple - Andrea Immer [52]
What About “Earthy” Wines?
The waiters I train often express confusion about wines being described as “earthy.” They think back to the time they made mud pies as children and actually took a taste; or to the gritty remnants of sliding into home plate during softball season. I find that when it comes to wine, the term earthy is harder for people to get used to than is the taste it describes. Generally, people love the taste of wines that are commonly described as earthy—Italian Chianti, French white and red Burgundy and Rhône wines, Spanish Rioja, among many others—but are not attuned to describing them as such. It certainly comes up as a positive attribute in other things—for example, potatoes are earthy; many great cheeses are known for a certain earthy funkiness; mushrooms are earthy. But if you do not relate to this term when you taste wines, it doesn’t matter. Just don’t let it put you off, because earthy is used a lot by the wine trade—often, and this is an interesting point, to identify the subtlety and terroir characteristics of Old World wines.
The New World counterpoint to the Old World’s earthy style, used quite often on back labels and in critics’ tasting notes, is “fruit-driven” or “fruit-forward.” These terms mean that the most prominent characteristic of the wine is bold, lush, opulent fruit, as opposed to earthiness or other subtle notes such as floral, spicy, and herbaceous.
Can New World Wines Have Terroir?
In every New World wine country, wineries and grape growers have begun to experiment with the idea of terroir, or vineyard-specific character, and how to express it in the bottle. But it is early days. Old World growers’ grasp of their vineyards’ character and potential was developed over centuries of trial and error. Most New World wineries are still grappling with basic questions, such as, Which grapes grow best in which areas?
In years past, the question of what to plant where was market-driven. Vineyards planted what was selling. But this resulted in some serious mistakes, the most famous of which was the planting of Cabernet Sauvignon in California’s Monterey County district. The climate there is usually too cool to successfully ripen Cabernet Sauvignon, as evidenced by some notorious Cabernet flops in the 1970s—“green pepper” was one of the kindest descriptions for their taste. Since then, the region has been replanted largely to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, both of which thrive in that cool-to-moderate climate.
Retooling a vineyard and then tasting and testing the results takes years. Once the question of what best to plant is settled, it takes more long years to identify and learn to capture in the wine the subtleties of a particular vineyard. Although it may be a long way off, some of the New World’s most respected vintners believe that terroir will ultimately have a prominent role in New World winemaking style.
You might have noticed the signs emerging on familiar wine labels. In the Napa Valley, for example, vintners have been closely studying the distinctive characters and grape affinities of particular Napa subsections for about thirty years now. Some consensus is forming. The Carneros subdistrict has become known for characterful Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. The Rutherford subregions has emerged as a Cabernet Sauvignon mecca. Some of Sonoma County’s subregions have developed similar specialty reputations. The Russian