{"id":36375,"date":"2025-07-14T14:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/?p=36375"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T16:23:39","slug":"pure-terroir-beyond-oak-and-blends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/07\/pure-terroir-beyond-oak-and-blends\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure terroir: beyond oak and blends"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in Lebanon when I first understood what terroir really meant.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Cinsault, in this particular vintage, was magnificent,\u2019<\/em> said Tarek Sakr, Technical Director of Ch\u00e2teau Musar, describing his most recent special cuv\u00e9e. \u2018It was so special that I asked the family if I might bottle 300 of them as a single varietal.\u2019<\/em>
\nIt may not sound dramatic, but Musar\u2019s entire philosophy had always been built around blending. This was a request to break that tradition.<\/p>\n

At the time, I was barely a year into my wine journey. I had just discovered the joy of rich, heavily oaked Napa Cabernet. \u2018So how will you age it?\u2019<\/em> I asked, adding \u2013 thinking I was being rather clever \u2013 \u2018I expect something that special deserves 100% new oak?\u2019<\/em>
\nWhat Tarek said next transformed my understanding of terroir and has shaped how I view great wine ever since.<\/p>\n

\"OakThe point was simple \u2013 he had discovered an incredible plot of Cinsault, grown in a year when the sun, soil, sea and every other element combined to produce something extraordinary. It was the finest expression of Cinsault he had ever tasted \u2013 perhaps ever would taste. Why on earth, he asked, would he mask that with new oak?<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t an anti-oak argument. We all know that, used judiciously, oak can produce glorious results. But he explained something that now seems obvious \u2013 the oak tree did not grow in the same soil as the vines. By introducing oak, you are adding an external influence. In his view, the perfect expression of Cinsault would be compromised by imported oak \u2013 a \u2018made wine\u2019, rather than a pure expression of place and time.<\/p>\n

This commitment to true ephemera<\/em> is what increasingly drives great winemakers today. Piero Incisa Della Rochetta<\/strong>, of Bodega Chacra<\/a><\/strong>, is already one of the finest examples. In our last conversation, he spoke about taking this even further \u2013 asking, how can you truly capture a vineyard\u2019s essence if fermentation takes place elsewhere? His next step is to bury amphorae at the base of the vines themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Rio

The Rio Negro Valley, Argentina<\/p><\/div>\n

As I wrote previously, if there\u2019s one golden rule in winemaking it is this: if a vigneron is willing to press and bottle the grapes from a tiny plot, without blending, it must be a remarkable piece of land, perfectly suited to the grape.<\/p>\n

I never did find out what happened to Tarek\u2019s 300. Perhaps, like the Spartans they were named after, they were all dispatched. I hope, though, that at least an Aristodemus and Pantites survived bottles that will tell the story of that year, and that vineyard, for many years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in Lebanon when I first understood what terroir really meant. \u2018The Cinsault, in this particular vintage, was magnificent,\u2019 said Tarek Sakr, Technical Director of Ch\u00e2teau Musar, describing his most recent special cuv\u00e9e. \u2018It was so special that I asked the family if I might bottle 300 of them as a single varietal.\u2019 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":36380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[791,1557,1555,1556],"class_list":["post-36375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ls-post","tag-argentina","tag-lebanon","tag-terroir","tag-winemaking"],"contentshake_article_id":"","yoast_head":"\nPure terroir: beyond oak and blends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was in Lebanon when I first understood what terroir really meant. \u2018The Cinsault, in this 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