A chronicle of our preposterous journey to grow wine grapes and make wine in the west of Ireland, where the mountains come down to the sea along the Wild Atlantic Way.
Showing posts with label UC Davis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UC Davis. Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Proof of terroir
My recent interest in malbec has led me to discover that vintners in California and in France have started producing their own malbecs. Those in France naturally claim that it's the original home of the malbec grape. Forget that they virtually gave up on that grape a long long time ago.
Argentina produces a stunning wine from the malbec grape grown in the high altitudes of the Mendoza region. So now everyone wants to bring back their version of malbec. Of course, there are folks out there who think that terroir is a bunch of nonsense. They suggest that it's all up to the grape and the vintner. So they plant some on rootstock in California; but the malbec grapes in Mendoza are on their original roots before Phylloxera. Now, I wonder if the malbec in Bordeaux was transplanted onto American root stock. I'll have to look that up. I think it would have been.
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