In message >
Steve Slatcher > wrote:

> Anders Tørneskog wrote:
>> "Dee Dovey" > skrev i melding
>> ...
>>> I can't figure this out.
>>>
>>> If a Bordeaux blend is made up of several grapes, and terroir is so
>>> important, does a winery that blends several grapes also own several
>>> terroirs (plots of land) where he grows the different grapes that he uses
>>> in his wine that he labels that is from his winery?
>>>
>> Good question. The chateaux of Bordeaux generally comprise a contiguous
>> plot of land which is planted with a variety of grapes. The proportion
>> within a given plot depends on the aptitude of the land and the decided
>> profile for the winery - traditions that often are centuries old but may be
>> modified over time. Furthermore, the grapes actually used in the official
>> blend depend on the vintage - the blends in cold years are often different
>> from these in warm ones.
>>
>> The cheaper Bordeaux wines may well be sourced from different plots and thus
>> do not display much terroir other than that of Bordeaux itself in general.
>>
>> A simplified response, this, I think :-)

> Simple, but correct as far as I know for Bordeaux

> In other places though, occasionally you get "field blends". Here,
> different varieties are grown in the same vineyard. If they are old
> vineyards, the varieties may be very well mixed, and the owner may not
> even know or care what the viarieties are. In more recently planted
> vineyards for field blends, each row will contain only one variety, but
> adjacent rows may well be different.


As Anders hinted the situation is in fact really quite complicated and
varied, certainly in Saint-Emilion. Some of the modern style wines
like Valandraud and Le Dôme are made from grapes grown on difgerent
parcels in the Jurisdiction which may have very different soil types,
heights above sea level, exposure and other aspects of difference
which go to make up ”terroir•. Equally many of the traditional great
growths, although having contiguous parcles of diffferent grape
vartieties, have different soil types across their vineyard and plant
accordingly. This is particularly true of thos on the Côte which may
have part of the plateau, th Côte itself and then the foot of the Cote
all producing very different wine for blending even from grapes of the
same cepage. It is also true of many Chateaux on the plateau that
differences bnetween parcels produce very different wines. I had a
most interesting tasting in June of 2008 Merlot barrel samples at
Grand Pontet where the difference in height and vine age of the plots
was very illustrative of the complexities of all this. Some winemakers
will actually make two wines from one area in order that the different
soil types may be used at their best — at the east end of the Cotes,
for example the Lavaus at Ch. Bernateau make both an eponymous wine
grown on argilo-calcerous soil and Ch.Peyronneau on sand and gravels.
Both have been Grand Crus in recent vintages but they show the
differences of terroir although the cepage is broadly similar.

Tim Hartley