"Great wines require old vines, poor soil, and rich men." - Proverb
The wonderment of the connection between the earth and the vine began with the first glass of wine, and continues unabated today. Indeed, it seems that the discussion and study of terroir is even more prevalent, passionate, and perplexing than it has ever been. And in spite of the inevitable marketing overhype or chauvinistic protectionism by some wine makers who argue for the greatness and uniqueness of their terroir, there is a growing body of evidence that terroir can indeed be fundamentally important for producing high quality...even great...wines.
The science of geology includes understanding the formation of the mountains, valleys and plains upon which vineyards grow, the climatic and geographic dynamics that effect the rocks and soils in those areas, and the chemistry of the groundwaters and soils into which the vines send their roots. It is the fundamental science, along with biology, that can help answer many, and hopefully most, but never all, of the questions we ask ourselves about the connection between the earth and the vine, leading to that glass of wine... It therefore encompasses a significant portion of the concept of terroir.
Email:
docshea@gmail.com
Terroir
J. Fanet, 2004. Great Wine Terroirs. University of California Press, 239 pp.
C. Frankel, 2014. Land and Wine: The French Terroir. University of California Press, 251 pp.
M. A. Matthews, 2015. Terroir and Other Myths of Winegrowing. University of California Press, 308 pp.
J. Swinchatt and D.G. Howell, 2004. The Winemakers Dance: Exploring Terroir in the Napa Valley.
University of California Press, 229 pp.
J. E. Wilson, 1999. Terroir: The Role of Geology, Climate, and Culture in the Making of French Wines.
University of California Press, 336 pp.
S. P. Imre and J. L. Mauk, 2009. "Geology and Wine 12: New Zealand Terroir." Geoscience Canada, 36(4):145-159.
S. Karakis, B. Cameron and W. Kean, 2016. "Geology and Wine 14: Terror of Historic Wollersheim Winery, Lake Wisconsin American Viticultural Area." Geoscience Canada, 43:265-282.
L. D. Meinert and A. J. Busacca, 2000. Geology and Wine 3: Terroirs of the Walla Walla Valley appellation, southeastern Washington State, USA. Geoscience Canada, 27(4):149-171.
L. D. Meinert and A. J. Busacca, 2002. Geology and Wine 6: Terroir of the Red Mountain Appellation, Central Washington State, USA. Geoscience Canada, 29(4):149-168.
A. G. Reynolds and C. de Savigny, 2016. Use of geomatic technologies to determine the basis for Terroir: Spatial variation in five Ontario Chardonnay vineyards. Journal of Applied Horticulture, 18(2):100-122.
E. Vaudour, E. Costantini, G.V. Jones, and S. Moscali, 2015. An overview of the recent approaches to terroir functional modeling, footprinting and zoning. Soil, 1:287-312.
J. E. Wilson, 2001. Geology and Wine 4: The Origin and Odyssey of Terroir. Geoscience Canada, 28(3):139-141.
H. McGee and D. Patterson, 2007. "Talk Dirt to Me." The New York Times, May 6, 2007.
J. Goode. "Mechanisms of Terroir." Wine Anorak (wineanaorack.com).
J. Goode. "What Does Terroir Taste Of?" Wine Anorak (wineanaorack.com).
Geology/Soil and Grape/Wine
A.M. Moreno, 2009. Geologia y Vinos de España. Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Geologos, 199 pp.
R. E. White, 2003. Soils for Fine Wines. Oxford University Press, 279 pp.
J. A. Amoros Ortiz-Villajos, F. J. Garcia Navarro, C. Perez de Los Reyes, J. A. Campos Gallego, S. Bravo Martin-Consuegra, R. Jimenez Ballesta, and R. Garcia Moreno, 2012. Geochemical influence of soil on leaf and grape (Vitis vinifera L. 'Cencibel') composition in La Mancha region (Spain). Vitis, 51(3):111-118.
C. J. Bargmann, 2003. Geology and Wine 7: Geology and Wine Production in the Coastal Region, Western Cape Province, South Africa. Geoscience Canada, 30(4):161-182.
J.J. Lambert, R. A. Dahlgren, M. Battany, A. McElrone, and J.A. Wolpert, 2008. Impact of Soil Properties on Nutrient Availability and Fruit and Wine Characteristics in a Paso Robles Vineyard. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Annual National Viticulture Research Conference, UC Davis, July, 2008.
M. Likar, K. Vogel-Mikus, M. Potisek, K. Hancevic, T. Radic, M. Necemer, and M. Regvar, 2015. Importance of soil and vineyard management in the determination of grapevine mineral composition. Science of the Total Environment, 505:724-731.
A. Maltman, 2008. The Role of Vineyard Geology in Wine Typicity. Journal of Wine Research, 19(1):1-17.
G. J. Retallack and S. F. Burns, 2016. The effects of soil on the taste of wine. GSA Today, 26(5):4-9.
R. Wang, Q. Sun, and Q. Chang, 2015. Soil Types Effect on Grape and Wine Composition in Helan Mountain Area of Ningxia. PLOS ONE, February 23, 20105, 12 pp.
H. J. Bohm. "The Influence of Soil on Wine Quality." Vine To Wine Circle (vinetowinecircel.com).
S. Brown. "The World's Top 10 Wine Soils." Winegeeks (winegeeks.com).
K. Ohlinger. "Soil Types for Wine Newbies." The Black Label (theblacklabel.com)
R. Pool. "Soil pH and Mineral Nutrition of Vitis vinifera Varieties." Cornell Fruit, Cornell University (fruit.cornell.edu).
"Dirty Little Secret about the Soil, Terroir and Climate of Bordeaux." The Wine Cellar Insider (thewinecellarinsider.com).
"List of Vineyard Soil Types". Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
Geochemistry
G. Faure, 1991. Principles and Applications of Inorganic Geochemistry. MacMillan, 626 pp.
G. Faure, 1986. Principles of Isotope Geology. Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 589 pp.
Soil Science
N. C. Brady and R.R. Weil, 2010. Elements of the Nature and Properties of Soils. Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 614 pp.
D. P. Franzmeier, W.W. McFee, J.G. Graveel, and H. Kohnke, 2016. Soil Science Simplified. Fifth Edition, Waveland Press, 198 pp.
Wine Chemistry
"Wine Chemistry". Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
"Wine Making: Chemical Composition." WineSkills, Plumpton College (wineskills.co.uk).
Wine Minerality
G. Asher, 2011. A Vineyard in My Glass. University of California Press, 279 pp.
P. Deneulin, Y. Le Fur and F. Bavaud, 2016. Study of the polysemic term of minerality in wine: Segmentation of consumers based on their textural responses to an open-ended survey. Food Research International, 90:288-297.
A. Maltman, 2013. Minerality in wine: a geological perspective. Journal of Wine Research, 24(3):169-181.
W. V. Parr, J. Ballester, D. Peyron, C. Grose, and D. Valentin, 2015. Perceived minerality in Sauvignon wines: Influence of culture and perception mode. Food Quality and Preference, 41:121-132.
H. Rodrigues, J. Ballester, M. P. Saenz-Navajas, and D. Valentin, 2015. Structural approach of social representation; Application to the concept of wine minerality in experts and consumers. Food Quality and Preference, 46:166-172.
W. Gaffney. "Minerality Lacks An Objective Meaning." Pinot File (princeofpinot.com).
Geochemical Provenance - Chemical
S. M. Azcarate, L. D. Martinez, M. Savio, J.M. Camina, and R. A. Gil, 2015. Classification of monovarietal Argentinean white wines by their elemental profile. Food Control, 57:268-274.
A. Bollati, P. Molin, F. Cifelli, A. B. Petrangeli, M. Parotto, and M. Mattei, 2015. An integrated methodology of viticultural zoning to evaluate terrains suitable for viticulture: the test area of Cesanese DOC(Latium, central Italy). Journal of Wine Research, 26(1):1-17.
P. P. Coetzee, F. P. van Jaarsveld, and F. Vanhaecke, 2014. Intraregional classification of wine via ICP-MS elemental fingerprinting. Food Chemistry, 164:485-492.
A. Cugnetto, L. Santagostini, L. Rolle, S. Guidoni, V. Gerbi, and V. Novello, 2014. Tracing the "terroirs" via elemental composition of leaves, grapes and derived wines in cv Nebbiolo (Vitis vinifera L.). Scientia Horticulturae, 172:101-108.
M. Gastol and I. Domagala-Swiatkiewicz, 2014. Trace Element Partitioning in 'Siberia" Grapevines as Affected by Nitrogen Fertilisation. South African Journal of Enological Viticulture, 35(2):217-225.
E. I. Geana, R. Popescu, D. Costinel, O. R. Dinca, R. E. Ionette, I. Stefanescu, V. Artem, and C. Bala, 2016. Classification of red wines using suitable markers coupled with multivariate statistic analysis. Food Chemistry, 192:1015-1024.
J. D. Greenough, L. M. Mallory-Greenough, and B. J. Fryer, 2005. Geology and Wine 9: Regional Trace Element Fingerprinting of Canadian Wines." Geoscience Canada, 32(3):129-137.
M. Mercurio, E. Grilli, P. Odierna, V. Morra, T. Prohaska, E. Coppola, C. Grifa, A. Buodonno, and A. Lanella, 2014. A 'Geo-Pedo-Fingerprint' (GPF) as a tracer to detect univocal parent material-to-wine production chain in high quality vineyard districts, Campi Flegrei (Southern Italy). Geoderma, 230-231:64-78.
S. Pepi, L. Sansone, M. Chicca and C. Vaccaro, 2017. Relationship among geochemical elements in soil and grapes as terroir fingerprints in Vitis vinifera L. cv. "Glera". Chemie der Erde, XX:pp-pp. (preprint)
V. S. Selih, M. Sala, and V. Drgan, 2014. Multi-element analysis of wines by ICP-MS and ICP-OES and their classification according to geographical origin in Slovenia. Food Chemistry, 153:414-423.
X. Sun, L. Li, T. Ma, X. Liu, W. Huang, and J. Zhan, 2015. Profiles of Phenolic Acids and Flavan-3-ols for Select Chinese Red Wines: A Comparison and Differentiation According to Geographic Origin and Grape Variety. Journal of Food Science, 80(10):2170-2179.
A. Versari, V. F. Laurie, A. Ricci, L. Laghi and G. P. Parpinello, 2014. Progress in authentication, typification and traceability of grapes and wines by chemometric approaches. Food Research International, 60:2-18.
H. J. Bohm. "Terroir and Viticulture." Vine To Wine Circle (vinetowinecircel.com).
Geochemical Provenance - Isotopic
E. A. C. Costantini, S. Pellegrini, P. Bucelli, R. Barbetti, S. Campagnolo, P. Storchi, S. Magini, and R. Perria, 2010. Mapping suitability for Sangiovese wine by means of δ13C and geophysical sensors in soils with moderate salinity. European Journal of Agronomy, 33:208-217.
C. Durante, L. Bertacchini, L. Bontempo, F. Camin, D. Manzini, P. Lambertini, A. Marchetti, and M. Paolini, 2016. From soil to grape to wine: Variation of light and heavy elements isotope ratios. Food Chemistry, 210:648-659.
C. Durante, C. Baschieri, L. Bertacchini, M. Cocchi, S. Sighinolfi, M. Silvestri, and A. Marchetti, 2013. Geographical traceability based on 87Sr/86Sr indicator: A first approach for PDO Lambrusco wines from Modena. Food Chemistry, 141:2779-2787.
C. Durante, C. Baschieri, L. Bertacchini, D. Bertelli, M. Cochi, A. Marchetti, D. Manzini, G. Papotti, and S. Sighinolfi, 2015. An analytical approach to Sr isotope ratio determination in Lambrusco wines for geographical traceability purposes. Food Chemistry, 173:557-563.
S. V. Dutra, L. Adami, A. R. Marcon, G. J. Carnieli, C. A. Roani, F. R. Spinelli, S. Leonardelli, and R. Vanderlinde, 2013. Characterization of wines according the geographical origin by analysis of isotopes and minerals and the influence of harvest on the isotope values. Food Chemistry, 141:2148-2153.
S. Marchionni, A. Buccianti, A. Bollati, E. Braschi, F. Cifelli, P. Molin, M. Parotto, M. Mattei, S. Tommasini, and S. Conticelli, 2016. Conservation of 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios during the winemaking processes of 'Red' wines to validate their use as geographic tracer. Food Chemistry, 190:777-785.
R. Petrini, L. Sansone, F. F. Slejko, A. Buccianti, P. Marcuzzo and D. Tomasi, 2015. The 87Sr/86Sr isotopic systematics applied to Glera vineyards: A tracer for the geographical origin of the Prosecco. Food Chemistry, 170:138-144.
L. G. Santesteban, C. Miranda, I. Barbarin, and J. B. Roya, 2015. Application of the measurement of the natural abundance of stable isotopes in viticulture: a review. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research, 21:157-167.
R. Stevenson, S. Desrochers, and J.-F. Helei, 2015. Stable and radiogenic isotopes as indicators of agri-food provenance: Insights from artisanal chees from Quebec, Canada. International Diary Journal, 49:37-45.
B.-Y. Song, M. K. Gautam, J.-S. Ryu, D. Lee, and K.-S. Lee, 2015. Effects of bedrock on the chemical and Sr isotopic compostions of plants. Environmental Earth Sciences, 74:829-837
I. Tescione, S. Marchionni, M. Mattei, F. Tassi, C. Romano, and S. Conticelli, 2015. A Comparative 87Sr/86Sr study in Red and White wines to validate its use as geochemical tracer for geographical origin of wine. Procedia Earth and Planetary Science, 13:169-172.
V. Vinciguerra, R. Stevenson, K. Pedneault, A. Poirer, J.-F. Helie amd D. Widory, 2016. Strontium isotope characterization of wines from Quebec, Canada. Food Chemistry, 210:121-128.
Geochemical Provenance - Remote Sensing
C. Delenne, S. Durrieu, G. Rabatel, and M. Deshayes, 2010. From pixel to vine parcel: A complete methodology for vineyard delineation and characterization using remote-sensing data. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 70:78-83.
Wine-Aging
M. S. Garcia-Falcon, C. Perez-Lamela, E. Martinez-Carballo, and J. Simal-Gandara, 2007. Determination of phenolic compounds in wines: Influence of bottle storage of young red wines on their evolution. Food Chemistry, 105:248-259.
A. Marquez, M P. Serratosa and J. Merida, 2014. Influence of bottle storage time on colour, phenolic composition and sensory properties of sweet red wines. Food Chemistry, 146:507-514.
Wine Taste/Flavor
J. Baker and R.J. Clarke, 2012. Wine Flavour Chemistry. Second Edition, John Wiley and Sons, 418 pp.
J. Goode, 2016. I Taste Red. University of California Press, 224 pp.
S. Garcia-Munoz, G. Munoz-Organero, E. Fernandez-Fernandez and F. Cabello, 2014. Sensory characterization and factors influencing quality of wines made from 18 minor varieties (Vitis vinifera L.). Food Quality and Preference, 32:241-252.
M. Gonzalez-Alvarez, R. Noguerol-Pato, C. Gonzalez-Barreiro, B. Cancho-Grande, and J. Simal-Gandara, 2014. Sensory description of wines obtained by the winemaking procedures or raising, botrytisation and fortification. Food Chemistry, 145:1021-1030.
M. R. Gonzalez-Centeno, K. Chira, and P.-L. Teissedre, 2016. Ellagitannin content, volatile composition and sensory profile of wines from different countries matured in oak barrels subjected to different toasting methods. Food Chemistry, 210:500-511.
T. E. Johnson, A. Hasted, R. Ristic, S. E. P. Bastian, 2013. Multidimensional scaling (MDS), cluster and descriptive analyses provide preliminary insights into Australian Shiraz wine regional characteristics. Food Quality and Preference, 29:174-185.
E. S. King, M. Stoumen, F. Busceman, A. K. Hjelmeland, S. E. Ebeler, H. Heymann and R. B. Boulton, 2014. Regional sensory and chemical characteristics of Malbec wines from Mendoza and California. Food Chemistry, 143:256-267.
G. J. Retallack and S. F. Burns, 2016. The effects of soil on the taste of wine. GSA Today, 26(5):4-9.
M. Citriglia. "The Flavor of Wines." Winegeeks (winegeeks.com).
J. Goode. "Wine Flavour Chemistry." GuildSomm (guildsomm.com).
J. Goode. "What Does Terroir Taste Of?" Wine Anorak (wineanaorack.com).
J. A. Lee, 2014. "Why wine smells the way it does". Stanford Wine Society (winesociety.stanford.edu).
M. Puckette. "Identifying Fruit Aromas in Wine". Wine Folly (winefolly.com).
M. Puckette. "Where Wine Flavors Come From: The Science if Wine Aromas". Wine Folly (winefolly.com).
"Aroma of Wine". Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
Wine-Food Pairing
S. E. P. Bastian, C. Collins and T. E. Johnson, 2010. Understanding consumer preferences for Shiraz wine and Cheddar cheese pairings. Food Quality and Preference, 21:668-678.
Wine and Global Warming/Climate Change
R. Ruitenberg, 2015. "The Way That France Makes Wine Is About to Change Forever." Bloomberg, October 15, 2015.
Oenology
J. Goode, 2014. The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass. Second Edition, University of California Press, 216 pp.
M. Sandler and R. Pinder (Editors), 2003. Wine: A Scientific Exploration. Taylor and Francis, 320 pp.
L. K. Wolf, 2014. A Taste of Wine Science. Chemical and Engineering News, 92(38):28-30.