Taste The Origin

The French have a word for wine’s ability to carry a sense of where it is from through the taste it has, terrior. This word can refer to qualities that the wine gets from the content of the soil the grapes are grown in as well as the water they were irrigated with.  The closest to terrior in English is the American coined word “somewhereness” and while it is a mouthful it captures the spirit of the French word.  To really taste a wine with some somewhereness look for single vineyard wines instead of wine that has been combined into regional blends or multiple grape blends even. This way the mineral, smooth or other qualities of the wine that were given by its terrain will be clearly evident to all. 

                Try having some friends over to try and see who can best taste the terrain qualities of the wines sitting happily in wine decanters.  This may be a taste bud trial, so to make things easier look for professional reviews of wines from the area and figure out the somewhereness or even see if wine reviewers have provided profiles of various regions.  People can even have favorite vineyards, not just a fondness for a region.

via Rhino Wino