Taste dependent on site of vineyard

THERE are a large number of factors that affect the way a wine tastes and the particular site, or vineyard, is high among them.

On a macroclimate level are things such as the number of growing season daylight hours and sunshine hours a year, the average temperature, the diurnal temperature range, average rainfall and when it falls, prevailing wind and more.

On a microclimate level there is the soil: its colour (and therefore, how quickly it heats up), water permeability (free draining), how fertile (or infertile) it is, the actual composition of the soil (clay, sand, schist etc) and so on. Aligned to that we have inclination (is it flat or sloping) aspect (is it, for example, north, northwest or west facing), altitude, row orientation, are there hollows where cold air pools, are there areas subject to a wind tunnel effect (which could restrict ripening) proximity to bodies of water, is it frost prone?

Burgundy in France, Barolo in Italy and the Mosel Valley in Germany are three areas in Europe where huge importance is given to the particular site. Over centuries of trial and error, and observation, they have worked out which sites see the sun first (or last) in the day, which have the snow melt first, which are last to succumb to frost, and which consistently make better wine, and developed a hierarchical system to codify it. The French have a handy catchall term that encompasses all the above influences — terroir.

A comparative tasting of the Felton Road Block 2 and Block 6 chardonnays with their viticulturist Gareth King last year was illuminating. The same vine age, farmed identically and given identical treatment in the winery yet the wines, both delicious in their own ways, were fascinatingly different. More study is needed urgently . . . now where were those wine glasses?