Excellent commentary, Tom, thank you! My take-aways:
1. Most importantly, the science of chalk and wine is not settled. The geology of chalk is 60-80 million yrs old, but our understanding of its influence on grapes is mostly artisanal. Artisanal experience is the best but not the only source, and wide open to further scientific discovery.
2. Finally, an explanation for the strange fact that alkaline soil nurtures acidic grapes with a low pH, so necessary and beneficial to fine champagne. Excessive calcium in the chalky soil competes with and thus reduces potassium uptake through the vine roots. Since potassium is central to the processes by which grapevines lower acidity in berries as fruit ripens, the grapes at harvest are more acidic with lower pH.
3. Your visuals show perfectly the geology, the so-called ‘nested dishes’ of the Paris basin.
4. Your overlay on the famous Larmat map is worth a thousand words.
I highly recommend this study to anyone with an interest in the farming of champagne grapes, and in particular the Champagne master students in the Wine Scholar Guild program which I completed last year.
Very good discussion Tom. As an American with a fascination with the production of sparkling wine on the US west coast (Washington to California), and an interest in sherry production in Jerez, I came across a new fact that the famous white soils of the Santa Rita Hills, which I was told were like the calcium rich Albariza soils of Sherry country, are in fact calcium silicate not calcium carbonate as in Champagne, or Jerez. True the Albariza is also rich is calcium silicate, but it is at least 40% calcium carbonate, unlike the Santa Rita Hills which are claimed to have one of the highest concentrations of pure diatomaceous soil on earth. (diatoms unlike other sea life have silica structures). The growers there claim that they also get a profound minerality from calcium silicate soils. Just wondering what are your thoughts on this?
Not tasted many! On the origin of 'minerality' though...complex. Wouldn't be able to say whether a particular soil would impart it, given we don't really understand where 'it' comes from, given the lack of common understanding of what 'it' is!
Excellent commentary, Tom, thank you! My take-aways:
1. Most importantly, the science of chalk and wine is not settled. The geology of chalk is 60-80 million yrs old, but our understanding of its influence on grapes is mostly artisanal. Artisanal experience is the best but not the only source, and wide open to further scientific discovery.
2. Finally, an explanation for the strange fact that alkaline soil nurtures acidic grapes with a low pH, so necessary and beneficial to fine champagne. Excessive calcium in the chalky soil competes with and thus reduces potassium uptake through the vine roots. Since potassium is central to the processes by which grapevines lower acidity in berries as fruit ripens, the grapes at harvest are more acidic with lower pH.
3. Your visuals show perfectly the geology, the so-called ‘nested dishes’ of the Paris basin.
4. Your overlay on the famous Larmat map is worth a thousand words.
I highly recommend this study to anyone with an interest in the farming of champagne grapes, and in particular the Champagne master students in the Wine Scholar Guild program which I completed last year.
Bruce
Very good discussion Tom. As an American with a fascination with the production of sparkling wine on the US west coast (Washington to California), and an interest in sherry production in Jerez, I came across a new fact that the famous white soils of the Santa Rita Hills, which I was told were like the calcium rich Albariza soils of Sherry country, are in fact calcium silicate not calcium carbonate as in Champagne, or Jerez. True the Albariza is also rich is calcium silicate, but it is at least 40% calcium carbonate, unlike the Santa Rita Hills which are claimed to have one of the highest concentrations of pure diatomaceous soil on earth. (diatoms unlike other sea life have silica structures). The growers there claim that they also get a profound minerality from calcium silicate soils. Just wondering what are your thoughts on this?
Not tasted many! On the origin of 'minerality' though...complex. Wouldn't be able to say whether a particular soil would impart it, given we don't really understand where 'it' comes from, given the lack of common understanding of what 'it' is!