One of the most frequent questions I am asked by beginning wine students is, “How do they add all those different aromas and flavours to wine?". Well the winemaker does not add anything; if they did it would be classified as a wine cooler. Aromas and flavour in wine develop from three basic sources, the grape varietal itself, the fermentation process and aging in oak or glass or both. That is what makes wine so fascinating, wine mimics fruits, flowers, spices and other flavours naturally!

The famous French term that encompasses the soil, micro-climate, slope or exposure that exists in the vineyard.
This is why the same grape varietal can be quite different from region to region. There can even be subtle but noticeable differences between vineyards only a few hundred meters apart!

This plays such an important role, not only in wine but in food as well.
I am sure it is the reason things taste better, when one travels or buys things from local farmers markets.

This past week my partner and I traveled to our local wine country ( Northeast, Pa.) in the search for some good wines that I could incorperate in my cooking. A wonderful day enjoying wines and the countryside. Choosing wines that I will be able to use to enhance the foods I make for my family and family and friends. Love taking the time to sample the wines and picture the food to go with them. It is taking the time stop and smell the roses., and the food.

Truthfully, I'm torn on the concept of terroir as the dominant factor in a modern wines.

Commercial winemaking is highly technical and often times focused on getting the highest "score" from various ranking and rating sources. I believe these rankings cause many winemakers to produce similar wines in hopes of increasing sales & profits.

There are many choices that an enologist makes in the course of producing a wine -- from time picked, skin contact, enzyme boosters, acid boosters (tartaric, malic, and citric), yeast variety, and even sulfide levels, that will dramatically affect the finished product. I have, on a hobbyist level, made many batches of wine side by side with a neighbor -- same grapes, same vineyard block, ect. We had radically different results with the exact same grapes because we practiced radically different styles of wine-making.

My favorite wines tend to be centered on minimalist intervention with no added sulfides. (I think that for the reds, both color and flavor drop out with heavy sulfide use.) However, minimalist needs to be defined. On a commercial level, it would be practically suicidal for a winemaker to refuse to boost acid, inoculate with yeast if a natural fermentation doesn't finish as planned, ect. Lab created yeasts have very predictable flavors and results. I find that many "new world" wines taste very similar because of the consistency of the yeast. In my opinion, it has a tendency to minimize/remove terroir from the equation.

I like buying local wines because it is usually easier to find a unique product -- one with minimalist intervention, that really does allow terroir to show through. (I rarely see these wines available through major distribution chains.) I think it would be fun to check out the wines in PA. I'm mostly familiar with west coast wines.

I did have the opportunity to do some wine touring outside of Kansas City a few years ago. That was my first experience with Norton grapes. I've never seen that varietal on my store shelves. It goes great with BBQ!

Thanks for the entertaining thread :)