How Climate, Weather And Soil Affect Wine
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is Terroir?
- Grapevines Must Struggle
- The Role of the Sun in Winemaking
- Wine is Sunlight Held Together by Water
Wine is just fermented grape juice, or is it? There’s more to wine than it seems, and many factors influence how it looks, smells and tastes. Today we will discuss the influence of the weather, soil and other forces of nature on wine.
After reading this, you’ll discover that it is mother nature who makes wine and not the talented grape growers and winemakers that guide it from the vineyard to the bottle. This is our quick guide to terroir — how climate and weather affect wine and why it matters.
What is Terroir?
Terroir is a French term roughly translated as ‘sense of place.’ Wine looks, smells and tastes like the place where its grapes grew. Terroir, though, is more than a romantic term — it’s science.
Even thousands of years ago, people realized that some plots produced riper and more concentrated grapes than others. These sites were soon labelled as Premier Cru or Grand Cru sites, and the wines from these fine vineyards were (and still are) sold at a premium. The name of the game is ripeness and concentration, and only when the soil and climate are right can one achieve ripe and concentrated grapes — the key ingredient behind fine wine.
Grapevines Must Struggle
Grapevines are resilient crawling plants; they’ll climb up trees if unattended! When properly pruned, the grape vines are forced to dig deep for nutrients, resulting in strong roots and concentrated fruit. While a wild grape vine can produce dozens of clusters, vines in a vineyard produce only a few.
Poor soils with little nutrients are ideal for growing premium grapes. On the other hand, vineyards planted in nutrient-rich soils are lazy, and their fruit is weak. Poor, well-drained soils are consistent in every high-quality vineyard. No surprise, grapes are the only thing you can grow where no other crop can.
The Role of the Sun in Winemaking
Then you have the weather. Low rainfall promotes concentrated grapes and reduces the risk of mold. On the same note, many hours of sunshine during the growing season allow vines to produce high amounts of sugar. Sunlight also encourages the production of pigments in grape skins!
The best vineyards in the world are steep and have ideal sun exposure since the more light they receive, the better. Rainy wine regions like Bordeaux in France have cloudy vintages now and then, and the grapes struggle to ripen. Other areas, like those in sunny California, struggle less with ripening. Of course, over-ripening is a thing, too, so you don’t want too much heat!
Cold-climate vineyards produce tart grapes that result in acidic wines, while warm-climate grapes become wine with a more robust alcoholic kick. Try two wines made with the same grape from different regions, and you’ll effectively taste their distinct terroir.
Wine is Sunlight Held Together by Water
As Galileo said, wine is sunlight held together by water, and he was right. The color of your favorite wine, its bouquet and even its mouthfeel is determined by climatic and geological conditions; isn’t that magical? And although there are many things winemakers can do in the winery to change the wine’s personality, they can never change its essence.
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