Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/391696
{ SOMMjournal.com } 91 How Experts Use the Term What do different tasters mean by "minerality"? "'Mineral' is interesting," says Stephen Spurrier, Contributing Editor for Decanter maga - zine and London Correspondent for The SOMM Journal, "but it did not exist as a wine tasting term until the mid-1980s. During most of my time in Paris I don't think I ever used the word," he recalls. "I think this was because most French vineyards were overproducing, chaptalizing and doing all those things, which means that minerality, which has to come from the soil and nothing else, was not looked for and not present." Spurrier does use the term quite a bit in his tasting notes. "I prob - ably associate minerality with stoniness, but then stones are hard and minerality is generally lifted. As a taste, it just comes into my mind and I very often find myself writing 'nice minerality on the finish.' I suppose it is easier to describe what it is not, that is, it is not fruit, nor acidity, nor tannins, nor oak, nor richness, nor fleshiness. It is not really a texture, either, for texture is in the middle of the palate and minerality is at the end. I think it is just there, a sort of lifted and lively stoniness that brings a sense of grip and also a sense of depth, but it is neither grippy (which is tannin) nor deep (which is fruit)." Spurrier adds, "No wonder we are all a little confused." I asked another well-known wine writer, Jancis Robinson, MW, about her use of "minerality" in tasting notes. "I am very wary of using it because I know how sloppily it has been applied," she replied. "In general I try to use it as little as possible and be a bit more specific. 'Wet stones' is a favorite tasting note of mine but there is sometimes something 'slatey' about some Mosel wine and 'schistous' (grainier) about some Saint Chinian and Catalan wines from both sides of the Pyrenees, I think. But when wine definitely doesn't smell of anything fruity, vegetal or animal, I might use it." Noted French critic Michel Bettane describes minerality as "a fashion - able word never employed in the 1970s and 1980s," agreeing here with Spurrier that it is a fairly recent invention as a tasting note term. Bettane says that for many tasters it is a "politically correct" term, describing a "wine non-manipulated by the winemaker and from organic viticulture, aromas and fruit being the sign of manipulation or the lack of expression of origin." He continues, "For me the only no-nonsense use is to describe a wine marked by salty and mineral undertones balancing (and not hid - ing) the fruit, more often a white wine rich in calcium and magnesium, as many mineral waters are. For a red wine I have no idea, with the excep- tion of some metallic undertones (iron in Château Latour or copper in Nuits Saint-Georges les Pruliers)." THIS CONTROVERSIAL WINE DESCRIPTOR ELICITS STRONG OPINIONS. Calcareous limestone soils are the pride of the Paso Robles AVA. Dormant Mourvèdre vines under the imposing Hortus cliff at Domaine l'Hortus, Languedoc. Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyard: "The roots . . . are affected and the wine shows that effect." CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF RIDGE VINEYARDS PHOTO: DEBORAH PARKER WONG PHOTO: JEREMY BALL how real is it?