How Location Affects Wine Flavors
Are earthquakes responsible for great wine? This theory has been seriouslyconsidered with the best wine-growing areas in the US being directly along the SanAndreas Fault. In Northern California, Temecula Cucamonga, Cienaga Valley, theSanta Cruz Mountains and Sonoma Coast all host areas of prime viticulture – and allare very close to the San Andreas Fault. The theory is that earthquakes break up thesoil at an extremely deep level, allowing dry-farmed wine grapevines to send theirroots down forty or more feet. Whether this is true or not, it is certainly true thatgrapevine roots will go down to such a depth if the soil allows it and whatevernutrients the roots suck up will certainly affect the final product – the grape and thusthe wine made from it.Earthquakes aside, location and soil type certainly do affect the flavor and quality of wine. There is more to the terrain in which the grapes grow than just the soil you cansee. The sub-soil plays an important part, since grapevine roots grow so deeply. Is thesubsoil rocky, chalky, sandy, dry or wet? All will have a bearing on the type of grapeproduced. Vines grown in limestone areas like Burgundy, France impart the subtletang of limestone to the Chardonnays made from their grapes. But soil and sub-soilare not the only factors. We must also look at what flora grows nearby. For instance,the eucalypt trees flanking vineyards in California impart a faint aroma of eucalyptusto the wine made from that area.Groundwater has an important part to play, too. If there is a lake or river near to thevineyard, the roots of grapevines will absorb much water from it, resulting in plumpgrapes with a rather milder flavor than those grown without any extra water supply.These grapes will be tiny, but have a much stronger flavor. There are even morefactors to consider. The direction the ground faces is also important. Whether it facesthe sun or slopes away from it; how much drainage the area gets. What rainfall is theusual and is the atmosphere considered humid or dry, hot or cold? Is it cold and wet orhot and wet? Or perhaps cold and dry? All these elements must be figured into theequation of how location affects wine flavor.Countries, of course, have a big part to play in the taste variation of wines. Americanwines have a stronger taste than Italian, while French wines are much more subtle. ACalifornia wine will have a different taste to its Australian counterpart. Some assertthat even the position of a vine in the same vineyard makes a difference to the flavorof the wine. For instance, a vine growing in the far south of a vineyard would produce
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