Like most wine regions in the old world, the soil plays a big part of what you get in the bottle and gives you that sense of place. Alsace is no different, there are some unique soils in Alsace that assist in fantastic wines in the glass!
Rob’s Contact
www.foodwinewhiskey.com
rob@foodwinewhiskey.com
@foodwhiskey on X
@food_wine_whiskey on IG
Todays Guest – Kevin Day
Editor-in-Chief at openingabottle.com
His focus is primarily on European wines, with a lean toward Italian and French wine. Not only does Kevin drink and evaluate these wines but he also travels to the regions. He gets to know the winemakers, their processes and why they do what they do. Then he shares this with all of us.
Photos in this video were provided by Kevin Day at openingabottle.com
Well you you ready to dive into the the grapes and and the Styles and the soils and TOS of of allas yeah sure you know I just want to have a little note about soil because I I I don’t really want to talk too much about it because I don’t
Think it’s super helpful okay for ordinary consumers who are trying to get her beginners on the region to to try to understand the role of the different soils on the great varieties but I do think it’s important to at least mention because one other thing that’s really
Really special about alzas is that by many you can make a case that it’s the most geologically complex wine region in on Earth like it’s it has 13 different geological formations under the vog mountains that show up in different ways um and that’s pretty exciting when you
Start diving into the wines because you get a lot of different uh expressions of these grape varieties that are completely dependent on the soil that they come from however I I I want to caution people against trying to buy wines based on soil type um and and you
Know the the the alian wine makers are so proud of this trait and attribute that I’ve seen a lot of wines labeled uh with geological terms really so you know like yeah like this wine is called granite and you’re like oh I’m in the mood for granite tonight you know it’s
Maybe maybe not like you know the the most helpful term because you kind of think well what do you expect from a reeling from Granite however I I do think it’s important for people to know that this complex geology plays into to the diversity of Alan wine um you have a
Very long mountain range that has diversity because of daylight hours from north to south because it’s such a long region so that’s one attribute you have a lot of microclimates from these side valleys that uh come out of the vog mountains but then there’s this plate tectonics equation underneath the
Surface that just makes it a real Rubik’s Cube um and I think if if you get into The gron Crew wines that’s where you’re going to start seeing the soil play in a different way and I think the the way that you notice that is on the pallet you’re not going to get
Signatures of Aromas nearly as much with soil but it has to do with the acidity and how quickly it crosses your pallet it has to do with kind of the texture of the wine it has to do with the Finish um and the reason soil is so important in
All this is because different soils will tell the roots to do different things you know if it’s a if it’s an area that doesn’t retain a lot of water which is the case with the greasing that we’re tasting here in a moment uh the roots
Are going to have to go very very deep in order to find water and that makes the vines work harder and that makes oftentimes The Grapes a little bit more expressive and aromatic sometimes the acidity is a little bit more sharp a little bit more acidic a little bit more
Kind of quick-footed as I like to kind of call it I always like to talk about sidity and momentum terms so the soil does play an important part of all that and that’s a real important part you answered my question on soil that’s that’s all I wanted it to be was just to
Kind of talk about the importance of the soil and and that it is just different not not to necessarily dive into you know the the granite versus Limestone or whatever it might be but just that it’s it’s different throughout the area and you and it it affects the wine in
Different ways to your point yeah and it’s it’s it’s you know some Vineyards will be mostly Granite some will have a lot of shale some will be Sandstone some will be Limestone some will be clay and then there’s like a whole lot that are
Like a mix of all of that um and they’re from different geologic eras as well so that’s why geologists would codify them as differently the one that’s really interesting and I love telling these little stories and this is just kind of a anecdote about you know what makes uh
You know this agent interesting there’s one gron crew Vineyard that stands out above all the others in terms of being just the weirdest and strangest and most eccentric and that’s the gru rang and datan which is way in the South part of Alas and it’s on volcanic soil so it’s
Kind of a rarity in alas to have volcanic soil so that’s one trait That’s Unique but it’s also a very very very steep Vineyard that is over a river and that River provides humidity that permeates a certain section of This gron Crew Vineyard to allow for what is
Really a rarity in the world which is a volcanic wine with Noble Rot oh wow and so domain zind humri Works in this Vineyard and they produce the the most incredible penal gree and reeling from this Vineyard that is completely different from one vintage to the next
The GR kurangan Olivia HRI if you ever get a chance to talk to him he’s a master of wine uh incredibly intelligent wine maker and he really loves to just let this Vineyard tell him how the wine should be made each year so I’ve had versions of it that are sweet uh and
It’s the most rocking sweet wine you’ve ever had because it has that volcanic tone of acidity the the kind of the Smoky quality to it but it’s also a sweet wine because of the Noble Rot so you’ve got the Noble Rot saaran kind of thing happening to it uh there’s just
Some many of these little stories in alas that are just totally fascinating and beguiling so you know soil does play a part in the identity of a lot of these wines