The War on Terroir and Wines of Mass Vinification

By Contributing Columnist Richard Olsen-Harbich

Read it again. We’re talking about terroir -- you know, that French term? Believe it or not there is actually a debate going on today that asks if terroir really exists. I used to find this astonishing since after all, isn’t wine all about where it's grown? Isn’t that why we have thousands of different wines to choose from in the stores and restaurants? If terroir didn’t exist, what would any region have over any other? Wouldn’t it be better just to consolidate all the winemaking in one part of the world, cut expenses and take it from there? Wouldn’t you just want to drink Jack Daniels or Grey Goose -- the same products made to the exact same specifications year after year?

That’s before I finally realized how this argument started to develop. Its because of a type of product that has become all the rage lately and is produced almost everywhere in the wine world. I call them WMVs -- Wines of Mass Vinification.

No not those!. These can actually be found in any wine shop (or, if you live outside of New York State -- gas station, grocery store, convenience or state store) you walk into. WMVs are wines made without any respect to terroir. They are typically produced in large quantities, totally by machine and rarely touch anyone’s lips during the winemaking process. Many “wineries” try to actually produce them with the exact same flavor components every single year. They can do this by utilizing gas chromatography, spectrometry and flavor profile analysis. Being a winemaker for a WMV means looking at lot of charts and lab analysis to determine how your wine is going to taste.

WMVs are not only found in mobile trailer units but in some of the finest homes and McMansions in the United States. Are they dangerous? You bet they are…dangerous to the concept of terroir and maybe even to you as well. And they are all around us.

The list of ingredients for manufacturing a WMV can be found on the Internet (where else?). All the ingredients are totally legal -- even approved by the BATF. Can you believe this? Here is just a partial list of them in alphabetical order:

Acacia gum, Activated carbon, Aluminosilicates, Ammonium carbonate, Ammonium, Phosphate, Calcium carbonate, Calcium sulfate, Casein, Copper Sulfate, Polyoxyethylene 40 monostearate, Silicon dioxide, Dimethylpolysiloxane sorbitan monostearate, Glycerol monooleate, Glycerol dioleate, Dimethyl dicarbonate, Carbohydrase, Cellulase, Glucose oxidase, Pectinase, Protease, Ethyl maltol, Ferro cyanide, Ferrous sulfate, Fumaric acid, Hydrogen Peroxide, Isinglass, Maltol, Potassium bitartrate, Potassium citrate, Silica gel, sorbic acid, soy flour, sulfur dioxide, thiamine hydrochloride, Killed whole cells of Lactobacillus, Glucose Syrup Solids

Oh yeah, I almost forgot the last one -- water. (that’s if you’re in California…)

Pretty impressive isn’t it? And this is just the list for our country. The U.S. is actually fairly tough on food additives compared with the E.U. and South America. Put that in your winepress and squeeze it.

Sure, some of these additives are very common and not dangerous at all like Pectinase (also used in fruit juices) and sulfur (an antioxidant used since Egyptian times for microbiological preservation and sanitation.) But for the most part, the list is a clear indication that not all wine is made the same.

Do you care? I do.

I not only like my wines to be natural and free from additives but I want wines that express themselves -- that  emphasize the terroir -- and the flavor of the region they come from. Isn’t that the whole point? What if everyone in the world started to look and act the same way, with the same mannerisms, accents and clothes? It sounds like a bad Star Trek episode at the very least.

Remember a merlot grape -- the same merlot grape -- grown in upstate New York or Sonoma or Bordeaux will not taste the same even if we used exactly the same processing techniques. It's the terroir stupid!

In our arrogance, we sometimes forget how little influence we have over the natural world. I want to know what goes into my wine if that’s not too much trouble. (And please don’t bother to tell me its organic -- that’s a topic for another post.) But when I’m enjoying wine from another region, I want to imagine what that part of the world smells like, tastes like and what the people drink. Maybe its because I can’t afford to travel there myself so enjoying the wine is the next best thing to being there.

Don’t get me wrong, I want wine to taste good, to bring pleasure. And, in a world where everything seems more and more processed and removed from the point of creation, I’d like to think that wine can still be made safe, pure and free from all the other garbage that is in so many other foods. If you hadn’t noticed, there is no ingredient label on wines. Too bad, because the best ones would have a label very simple and small. Here it is.

Ingredients: Grapes.

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This post was written by Richard Olsen-Harbich, managing director and winemaker at Raphael in Peconic, New York. He is a contributing columnist to LENNDEVOURS.

Technorati tags: long island | food and wine | terroir

Comments

[weekendwino]

Sounds like the Mother of all wine battles. I must agree that this is an unfortunate side effect of the popularity of wine. As wine becomes more a part of popular culture (Sideways, etc.), the profiteers will find ways to shortcut the process in the name of economic efficiency. But I have to believe that there will always be a thriving market for well-crafted wines that exhibit the tell-tale traits of their region. Thank you Richard for a thought-provoking post.

[caveman]

hey lenn,
were we thinking the same thing at the same time? Pretty freaky bro'... my last two posts were exactly on this subject...IM all for listing the stuff on the label and let the consumer decide..
Bill

[Kevin Riley]

Call me a grape purist, but I totally agree with the last line of the article.

A few weeks ago I went tasting in parts of Massachusetts. It is amazing how many farms call their wines made with apples and pears wines. Most tasted terrible. If the others tasted different, they still didnt have the "Wine" taste.
All wines should be made with grapes. other than that, it is cider or fruit juice.

[Jack]

Do you think we could replace the silly sulfite warning on US labels with an actual list of ingredients? Like, not in our lifetime! (I'd just love to see things like French Oak Shards, American Oak Sawdust, Pectin, and Designer Yeast 532(R).)

Oh, "WMVs -- Wines of Mass Vinification" - aren't these simply called Industrial Wines?

[NoBullGrape]

Hallelujah. I think this is right on . Keep it up. In the end, US consumers only gain by understanding where their wine comes from...

[Dave Brookes]

We have our fair share of WMV over here in OZ I'm afraid :-(

Dave

[Tom Wark]

"Remember a merlot grape -- the same merlot grape -- grown in upstate New York or Sonoma or Bordeaux will not taste the same even if we used exactly the same processing techniques. It's the terroir stupid!"

Are you sure you could tell the difference between these three wines if they were in front of you and you were tasting blind?

[Richard Olsen-Harbich]

Tom, I believe you could put a tasting together (using three individual wines from producers involved in similar wine styles) that might stump the best of tasting panels. However taken as a group, yes I do believe there are differences between these three regions that would be quite evident. Imo, terroir is not something that is developed through individual wines, rather its a regional flavor and impression that is developed over time. My question to you would be - are you saying terroir doesn't matter?

[rakin]

A blog which doesn’t allow comments is still a blog. When I started blogging over six years ago, there were many many blogs already. Yes, I know it seems to many as if in the year 2000 you had to hunt around to find a blog. You didn’t. They were “everywhere”. Most have just closed down since then.

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