|
Terroir
in Argentina: interview with Santiago Achaval of Achaval Ferrer While terroir is a French word, it’s ludicrous to suppose
that France is the only place with terroir. Speak to winemakers from
just about any region and it will become apparent that this important
concept is relevant to fine wines everywhere. But while the French
have had centuries to explore and perfect the matching of grape
varieties with vineyard sites, in the Southern hemisphere the process
of terroir discovery has really only just begun in earnest. I recently
tasted two wines from premium Argentinean winery Achaval Ferrer, and
had a chance to quiz the president of the company, Santiago Achaval,
about his views on terroir. Does he ever use the word ‘terroir’, and is it
something he considers important? ‘Yes, we do use the word “terroir”:
in fact, there’s an equivalent word in Spanish’, says Achaval.
‘Our word has the same nuances as the word terroir, plus an
additional one: it’s the land a man belongs to, not the land that
belongs to a man. It describes a man’s bond with the land where he
was born,’ he continues. ‘We think the concept of terroir is of
the highest importance. Terroir is for us the only source of
originality and personality of a wine. It is also a source of
never-ending wonder: how small distances and slight differences in
soil composition, exposure, and even surrounding plant-life result in
very noticeable differences in the wines.’ He refutes the idea that terroir is confined to classic old
world regions. ‘Argentina does have terroirs in the same way as
France and Italy do. The difference with those other countries is that
the discovery of our terroirs is just now beginning. Both France and
Italy have been perfecting their knowledge of their soils and
microclimates since the early Middle Ages. Argentina started a century
ago, with a hiatus during the turbulent economic times between the 70s
and the 80s. So there’s a lot of exploration to be done until we can
really say that we know our terroirs, and that we can design their
hierarchy: Not every vineyard is capable of expressing a powerful
personality through its wine. And as in the rest of the world there
are differences in quality of the wine that are driven only by
location.’ I asked him whether terroir influences the way he works.
‘Yes it does, and strongly so. Achaval-Ferrer is producing what we
call two “ideas” of wine. One of these “ideas” of wine is what
we define as “the research into terroir”. These are
single-vineyard Malbec varietals, all three of them from very old,
low-producing vines in very special places in Mendoza. You tasted our
flagship, Finca Altamira. What we are trying to do with these wines is
to showcase the difference between the expressions of terroir in
Mendoza. By trial and error, by untiring exploration and by reducing
yields to around 12 hectoliters per hectare, we’ve selected and
purchased vineyards that express their personality so strongly that it
overcomes vintage variations, and can be recognized by blind tasting
year after year. We keep the yields similar in all three vineyards,
harvest at the same maturity, and ferment in the same way, and use the
same barrels. In this way, all the differences between these
single-vineyards are entirely attributable to terroir. ‘The other “idea” of wine is what we call the
“pursuit of the ideal wine”. It is a blended wine based on
Bordeaux varietals. We’ve named this wine Quimera (I think you
tasted the 2001). In Spanish Quimera means an impossible ideal. Which
is exactly what the pursuit of an ideal wine is. In this wine the
“sense of place” is lost (if you define place as a specific
vineyard). But again, the low yields allow a mineral expression, and a
very noticeable Mendoza character to be found in the wine. A broader
"sense of place." And his definition of terroir? ‘We define terroir as the
set of unique characteristics of a wine, which can be found every year
(they are so powerful that they overcome vintage variations), and
that, everything else being equal (fermentation times, barrel aging,
etc) allow that wine to be recognized easily among other wines in a
blind tasting.’ Now a more tricky question. It’s easy enough to describe
the soil types and climates, but how do these relate to the
characteristics and flavours of the wines? ‘This set of
characteristics is what we call the “personality” of the wine. And
is very related both to soil and location of the vineyard. As an
example, take Finca Altamira. This vineyard lies alongside the Tunuyan
River, in the southwestern part of the Uco Valley, at 1050 meters
above sea level. Soils are sandy, with gravel and boulders mixed in.
The eighty-year-old plants are very balanced to low productions (350
grams of grapes per plant, one bottle of wine per three plants). This
allows a minerality in the wine not found in wines of high yield
vineyards. And this minerality is related to soil structure particular
to Altamira. The altitude is very important: The higher you go, the
better quality of sunlight the plant receives. The closeness to the
river is critical: In Mendoza the rivers are the cool-air conduits out
of the Andes mountains. So you have cooler nights than vineyards that
are a mile away from the river. (More aromas, better color, more
vivacious acidity). And there are less extreme-heat days during
summer: again more aromas, with subtle violet and red fruit tones. Add
in the surrounding ecosystem: We’re the last cultivated piece of
land before you arrive at the Andes mountains. Neighbouring vegetation
changes the character of the weather as much as exposure.’ All in
all, an eloquent exposition of the characteristics of terroir. What
about the wines? I think they display terroir, although when you are
talking about terroir characteristics from warm climate wines, it’s
likely that there will be fewer of what are regarded widely as
‘minerally’ or ‘earthy’ characters, simply because fruit
sweetness tends to be more dominant on the palate. In a way, you need
to get away from the rather simplistic notion that non-fruit
characters stem from ‘terroir’. Here are my notes: Achaval Ferrer Quimera 2001 Mendoza, Argentina Achaval Ferrer Finca Altamira 2001 see
also: tasting notes of Argentinean wines wines tasted February 2004 |