Before I even start down this road, I invite those who want to flame me for the title alone – go ahead.

Over the last several years, we here in America (the “New World” of wine) have been seeing and hearing the French word “Terroir” thrown around with reckless abandon and quite frankly, most people either a. don’t know what it means, b. don’t give a damn or c. both. 

First, I’ll address the folks in group “A” – Terroir is the fancy French word which means: 

“….Very loosely translated as “a sense of place” which is embodied in certain qualities, and the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the manufacture of the product.”

The notion is that a vineyard’s “Terroir” has more to do with the flavor profile of the grapes which come from it than anything else. This is one of the primary reasons we’ve seen the word elevated to an almost rock-star status. Now that you have an idea about what the word means, you’ll be able to help propagate its madness at the next wine-tasting you go to.

From the wine industry’s perspective – certainly vineyard owners – it makes sense to promote Terroir as it helps validate their reasons for continually opening up new AVA (American Viticulture Area) regions – thus helping to draw more attention to their vineyard. The whole goal is to make us, the consumer, get a certain mindset that thinks “if I buy (for example) a bottle of wine from Red Mountain (a leading AVA in Washington State), then I’ll be certain to get a great bottle of wine.” While folks in the industry may never admit that out-right, that is ultimately one of the goals.

There are clearly self-evident truths to the idea of Terroir – for example, if you take Syrah grapes from Rhone and Syrah grapes from California and could harvest them at the exact same brix levels – use identical yeast, barrels and time-in-barrel, you’d still have two Syrah’s that taste different. 

Secondly, let’s address those in group “B” – these are my kind of peeps.

There’s not much to address to group “B” because they – like me – care first and foremost about good wine, regardless of where it came from or how it got in the freakin’ bottle. They pride themselves in not allowing fancy words being tossed around with reckless abandon get in their way of pleasure or displeasure with wine – to you, I salute!

Quite frankly there are a whole host of things which happen at the winery which can alter a grape’s Terroir – everything from the yeast-type to what kind of barrel (oak or stainless, new or used), to how long it sits in the barrel and other things. Of course, the industry at large seems to turn a blind eye to that aspect which I feel is really unfortunate as it diminishes the skills of the winemaker. 

Winemakers play such a pivotal role at wineries that we’ve seen large groups of customers follow a particular winemaker when he/she leaves a winery – something similar happened not long ago with Pax Cellars in California. It begs the question – if Terroir is so important to the success of a winery, why do people stay more focused on its winemaker?

How come we don’t hear more accolades to those winemakers who know when to hold em’, know when to fold em’ and know when to way away? That is to say, they have the artistic touch to know exactly what to do with the grapes so they produce kick-ass wine.

Most winemakers I know are more on the humble side and that’s great, however, if you or I have a winemaker we feel does a consistently great job with wines – regardless of the vintage – then we should not only give them a high-five for their strong kung-fu of winemaking but make sure to support them by buying their wines.

In our efforts to help get rid of the snob out of wine, I’d encourage you to forsake all of your preconceived ideas about grape varieties, wine regions or even pretentious labels. Please DO get out there and taste EVERYTHING you possibly can – your palate will thank you and the experience and knowledge you’ll gain from doing that will last a lifetime. How much cooler would it be to know what wines taste like from all over rather than stress out about which microclimate it came from?

No need to address group “C” – See previous two answers.

I’m always amazed at the volume of people willing to pay well over $100 to get into wine events under the notion that they’ll somehow get the chance to properly sample tons of wine – the primary problem is, however, that these events do not cater to helping one develop a good palate for what’s being poured because of many factors. Here are a few guidelines I use if I choose to go to an event like the upcoming Taste WA:

1. Make a mental note to yourself that it’s perfectly acceptable to NOT try every wine being poured.
The reality is that your palate (or anyone else for that matter) gets a beat-down like Mike Tyson on crack at an ear-biting contest whenever you subject it to too much stimulus from more than a dozen or so glasses of wine.

Before you go to the event, get a list of the participating wineries and select (randomly if you want to be adventurous) only a handful to try out during the few hours you’ll be at the event. This way, you get to try out new wines without overwhelming you and your palate.

2. Do make it a point to have some food:
Either sneak some food in (if you’re on a budget) – *cough* I know some folks who will sneak in a pocketful of blue cheese in plastic wrap – or get food from whomever is serving food at the event. You need to do this to be able to coat your palate between glass pours; if you don’t, you’ll find that your ability to pick up on the varying flavors of wine will quickly diminish within the first hour or so.

3. If you do the “sneak” thing:
Here a few examples of foods that should hold up okay in the confines of a loose jacket pocket or backpack etc.:

•    Dried Fruit
•    Nuts
•    Blue Cheese
•    Jerky snacks

Bottom line is that you need the sort of sugars and fats these foods being to the table to make sure your overall tasting experience is good and one to remember.

4. Write things down:
If you don’t have an excellent memory, then bring some sort of notepad and pen to jot down your thoughts on each wine and make it a point to take those notes with you next time you’re out at the store, looking for wine.

Outside of tasting notes about wine, I’ll also make notes about the people pouring the wine, such as:
•    Were they cool?
•    Did they strike me snobs?
•    Did they seem passionate about the wines they poured?

I will purposely avoid buying wine from folks who inappropriately represent their products and the wine industry. It’s a food product; it should be fun and never snobby.

5. Ask as many questions as time allows for:
This is one you’ll need to feel out the situation for. If you you’re at a rather empty table and have some time with the folks pouring, you should ask them questions about the wine, the people behind it etc. Take time to get to know them – many of whom are good, honest folks who love what they do.
If the table is busy, remember, there are others there who also want some time tasting the wine and to chat a bit – be courteous about this. Come back when things “die down” and talk to the folks at that time.

6. Please Spit:
I can’t begin to tell you how many people I run across who either don’t know about spitting or say things like “why would I want to waste the alcohol”? Those spit buckets are there for a reason folks.

For starters, you should be spitting due to the obvious reasons of what too much alcohol intake can do – nobody should ever drive back from an event like this without doing a lot of spitting.

Secondly, if you consume too much, you can easily misjudge the tastes after awhile – why do you think many people start pouring the cheap crap after a few bottles with friends? Because after awhile, it all tastes the same, that’s why.

Lastly, the spit bucket is NOT for rinsing your glass out! I was helping with a pour back in the summer of 07 and there was some lady who came up and rinsed her glass out using the wine in the spit bucket! Ewww – I didn’t have the heart to tell her what she had just done.

7. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes:
Aside from coming across as a wine snob (shudder the thought), wearing those formal clothes and shoes will do nothing for your overall comfort.  I always go casual – jeans, good shoes – you know, the kind of stuff you’d wear on a daily basis (just promise us, you’ll shower).

8. Drink water – don’t rinse with it:
There’s nothing wrong at all to ask the person pouring your taste to have a little “rinse action’ with the wine they’re about to pour. Rinsing with water will only add water into your taste and while I’m sure the local water supply is safe for human consumption, I don’t want it in my glass.

I would, however, highly recommend to everyone to pack in a bottle or two of some good h2o – remember, alcohol dehydrates the body of water – you need to keep yourself well hydrated.