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A WINEMAKER’S TERROIR PRIMER
and rambling thoughts about drinking regional wines....

For those of you who wonder about how a wine is born, I offer a few words to better understand why the wines of the Atlantic Uplands region taste like they do. My simple definition of Terroir is “the interactive eco-system of a given place including its climate, soil, grape varieties and previously established condition of those varieties.” That is, everything we do not do but what we react to.

In general the local terroir of the wines I grow is like this:

Climate: A mild winter that allows vines to over-winter with minimal cold damage. Occasionally we have sufficient winter warmth to entice vines into taking in moisture they cannot move to their roots before cold spells, which causes tissue damage in the trunk and cordon. Thus cordons and trunks are occasionally replaced by the observant pruner over the following two or three years. We enjoy a hot growing season that ripens wood and fruit nearly 24 hours both day and night, that dispels excess acid, modulates color and skin tannins, enhances delicate fruit, spice and other unique regional characteristics. Our growing season is approx 5 months or 153 days.

Soil: The soils in the foothills have been washed down over the millenniums from the ancient Appalachian Mountains and are often gravel silt loams. Highly complex, somewhat moisture retentive soils allow roots to draw thirstily from 12 inches to 30 feet depending on depth to bedrock. These soils, typically virgin to grape growing, are very powerful and are capable of great vigor given frequent rains during the growing season.

Variety: The old-world varieties we grow, like Chardonnay, Barbera, Pinot Noir and Cabernet, are affected by the rootstock they are grafted to (typically the same rootstocks as used in Burgundy and California). With these vinifera varieties we measure success each year according to their ability to source moisture and nutrients, retain acidity, generate sugars, tannins and flavors that we translate into the wines we make. Average pH ranges from 3.2 to 3.6 (3.45 to 3.65 pH as finished wine), sugars from 20 to 24 degrees Brix (11.5 to 13.5% finished alcohols).

Character: Wines from the Atlantic Uplands are typically delicate, light colored, not highly alcoholic, medium bodied, with fine flavors and a more delicate touch on the palate (crying out for a local cheese, fresh Atlantic fish, local vegetables, Kennett Square mushroom sauce, grass-fed Pennsylvania lamb or grass-fed beef....). Since our reds derive most of their tannins from ripe brown grape seeds we do not typically need to barrel age more than nine months or a year to have a smooth mouth-feel of fine silky tannins.

I’m not quite finished in this local terroire harangue, so you can look forward to a bit more statistical data on our climate and soils....but I am momentarily sidetracked by the thoughts of local foods that snuck into my previous paragraph. That quick digression took me back to my childhood living in Burgundy where we all drank our neighbor’s wines. (Have you ever been in a Beaune wine shop and tried to buy a bottle of classified Bordeaux?)

In today’s world of mass global marketing of popular wines like Yellow Tail, I want people to think about and know where you live and what grows there. Know your fruits and vegetables. Know your cheeses. Know the wines that are typical of your best winegrowers. Support a small local carbon footprint.

So....how do I enhance the appreciation for the wines I, and my fellow winemakers grow? To open minds to include something unique before us, something we might miss because it is so obvious? Let me know what you think.

Eric Miller
Winemaker