Quality wine - what makes it special?

You have probably wondered why some wines are meant for immediate consumption and others only reach their peak after decades. What affects the quality of wine and gives it the ability to develop in taste over several decades?

In the French language, there is such a word terroir. It represents a combination of soil, geographical position and climate of the territory where the vine was grown. All these aspects play a role in the development of quality wine grapes. The influence of human labor in wine production also plays a role.

Soil quality

For production of quality wine, it is important that flavour nuances of soil reach the taste of grapes. Therefore, soil quality and composition play a major role. In order to get necessary minerals from soil, the roots of vine must reach groundwater - up to a depth of 20m. It can take up to 10 years for vine to start bearing a fruitful and excellent harvest that could be used in quality wine production. 

At the same time, several external factors also affect yield. For example, if a vineyard is hit by heavy rains or even hailstorms, the harvest will suffer. As a result of rain, groundwater will fall deeper, which is why plants with shorter roots cannot reach it, which in turn means that important minerals remain unabsorbed and quality of wine will suffer. The same happens in drought years when vines need to be watered.

Climate influence on wine regions

Temperature mostly affects the amount of sugar content in grapes. Depending on grape variety, temperature required may vary. General rule that applies for the fermentation process: 17g/l of sugar in grape juice yields 1% alcohol. For most fine wines, alcohol content is between 11.5-13.5%, lower for whites, higher for reds. If there’s less alcohol than that, wine quality is considered lower and there will not be as much demand for wine.

Since temperature plays an important role in the development of quality of wine grapes, we cannot leave out the impact of climate warming on regions of fine wine. For example, in Burgundy, average temperature has risen by as much as 1.5 degrees in the last 30 years. This has affected quality - less high-quality wine can be produced from grapes of the same field. Due to high demand and low availability, this trend increases the price of wines. Since we do not know what climate change will bring and how it will affect wine production in future, now is the right time to stock up on fine wines in your portfolio.

Human work influence on the wine quality

Development of technology has also influenced fine wine production. Even if growing conditions for some vintages are not great, it is possible to improve the quality of lower vintages with help of technology.

At the same time, since wine is an agricultural product, chemicals absorbed into soil also play a role here. That is why, for example, Eastern European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria, which were untouched by chemicals thanks to the Soviet era, have very good conditions for growing wines. Wines there are of high quality and their popularity in the world is on rise, but even so, there is currently a greater demand for lower class wines of Burgundy than for top wines of Romania.