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
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot. Interestingly,
the blend occurs before racking into barrels, of which 40% are new
(10% American oak and 90% French oak). The wine shows a sensational
rounded, sweet perfumed nose, with creamy blackcurrant fruit. The
palate displays more of this sweet, rounded fruit which hides a
smooth tannic core. There’s a subtle herby complexity and some
minerality is apparent on the finish. Very good/excellent 92/100 (£20.56
Corney & Barrow)
Achaval Ferrer Finca Altamira 2001
From a single 10 acre vineyard situated 3400 feet above sea
level. The vines are ungrafted and were planted in 1925: these yield
just 350 g of fruit each. The soil is poor and sandy with a large
alluvial sediment, and there is some protection from wind provided
by the chestnut and cypress trees that surround the estate.
Temperatures here in the growing season can be in the mid 30s
centrigrade during the day, dropping to around 12 at night. The nose
displays sweet fruit with a savoury, herbal edge: there’s a
liqueur-like quality to the fruit. Very rounded and ripe. The palate
is lush and intensely concentrated with good acidity and a nice
tannic structure. There’s a bit of minerality, too – this is
intense and delicious. Very good/excellent 93/100 (£41.48 Corney
& Barrow)
see
also: a visit to
Achaval Ferrer, March 2008; tasting notes
of Argentinean wines
wines
tasted February 2004
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