Not All Wines Are Vins de Terroir
Most wines are manufactured. They are manufactured from machine harvested grapes taken from high-yielding farmland and turned into wine in continuously fed fermentation machines where the contents are adjusted for acids, alcohols, and residual sugar according to market demand.
The output from these machines is directed by computer to different labels, where some of the fermented juice will be placed into mixed use barrels (for the higher end production), while most will be funneled into steel tanks where barrel aging will be simulated with micro-oxygenation and chemical treatments.
Manufactured wines can be good. After all, they are designed to appeal to the majority of consumers. But they hardly can be considered wines of terroir, even if the label indicates a regional designation. Somewhere between fruit set and chemical additions, the wine has lost any remembrance of place.
Manufactured wines are cheap because of the economies of scale. They appeal to the 55 percent of consumers who are uncomfortable spending more than $20 on a bottle of wine. On the other hand, wines of terroir can be expensive. After all, they come from a place, often a small block of vines in a single vineyard. Fruit yields are low, and prices and demand are high. There is no economy of scale in crafting a terroir wine.
Wines of terroir are hand harvested, a small price to pay considering the scarcity of the fruit. They are hand sorted, both at the vineyard and at the winery. Fermentation is customized to the vineyard and the variety. At each stage of development, the wines are attended to by a skilled winemaker: no mechanical processing here. Terroir wines are time consuming and labor intensive, they are wines requiring patience.
Manufactured wines can be pleasant, but little else. Wines of terroir, for those of us willing to take the time, provide us with so much more. Wines of terroir give added dimensions of flavors, textures and aromas. More important, these wines connect us with our culture, our past, our family. They remind us of our place in the world.
