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Stained, warped and terroir rich: the global and shockingly sustainable lives of wine barrels (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by Cheradenine to c/longreads

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[+] RowRowRowYourBot 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] Cheradenine 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.

Terroir applies to many things. A sheep cheese made in the same style on the island of Pag in Croatia, and one in Iberia are not the same. Likewise, a San Marzano tomato grown in Australia is not the same. AOC, DOC, PDO, and many classifications exist for reasons beyond protectionism. In any case that's not what the article is about.

Yes American oak and French oak have different tastes but it isn't as if I could put a glass of whiskey in from of an expert and have them guess where the wood came from whereas doing so is a common test for grapes in wine.

Nowhere do I see that contested in the article, in fact it says the opposite.

No one at Tucson’s Hamilton Distillers knows exactly what wood the cognac barrels holding whiskey are made of.

“Probably Spanish oak?” one employee ventures a guess.

The article, which obviously I found interesting, is about the journey of a barrel. I thought others might find it interesting as well. I had no idea they were as long lived, or put to so many uses.

[+] RowRowRowYourBot 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] Cheradenine 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I know terroir is a marketing point, that's without question. But, that's not the focus of the article.

Terroir originally applied to grapes, it now applies to many more things. I can tell you, IMHO, where the best cashews come from, or peanuts, oregano, avocados, sumac, buckwheat, or sage. The same things apply to other crops besides grapes. The Côte Chalonnaise vs Côte d'Or is real, as is the difference between Yerba Mate from Paraguay vs from Brazil.

The idea that American Oak expresses terroir rather than species specific traits is not logical.

Ok, I don't know enough about it. Is that stated in the article though? Because I can't find it. Even if it did say that (spoiler, it does not) I would not find that very surprising. I have been mushroom picking and I said 'there's a bunch here' and they said 'don't bother, they're shit'. The difference was one side of a 20 metre valley to the other. Soil, sun, drainage, and a lot more really matter.

[+] RowRowRowYourBot 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] Cheradenine 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Grapes grown two miles outside of the Rutherford Bench that are clones of ones in the Bench appellation do not gave these notes. That notion of flavor specific to place is what terroir is.

That again isn’t inherent to terroir as Brazil and Paraguay are far too large to talk about distinctions that come from a specific place.

How is your second statement true? Its exactly the Côte discussion, if opposite sides of a valley matter then larger distances do as well. Terroir is about a specific place, it does not matter if the distance is 2 miles or a thousand, terroir is the difference.

If you want to argue that terroir is more important in some crops and less in others I would agree.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

This was pretty interesting! Really makes me wanna try some of this fancy booze. Definitely one lucky journalist…traveling the world following barrels of liquor. Cheers!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I've never seen a word terroir written before, only spoken, so it converted into "terror rich" in my mind, phrases like that make you click on an article. 😄