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The terroir events which we initiated in February, 1999, at Oliveto grew out of conversations we had before and during a trip which owners Bob Klein and Chef Paul Bertolli made to Italy the previous November. In the largest sense we were interested in the specific ways in which Italy's connection to its inherited tradition, culture and local soil determine its approach to food and how we might move in a similar direction as an "Italian" restaurant in California.
Because we had dedicated the restaurant to the farm-to-table connection and an unadorned, ingredient-based approach to food, we felt that the next step in adding dimension to our cooking would be to further single out farm sources that excelled in raising particular crops. We had already gone in this direction through our "Best of Harvest" events in which we offered a series of tastings and dinners which emphasized particular seasonal foods obtained from different sources. Through these events and our constant tasting over the years it was also clear that the same crops grown in different locations can manifest subtle or dramatic differences. So it occurred to us that the idea of terroir, which is more commonly used to describe the unique character of a wine and its soil, could be extended to include food crops, animals, and fish. Terroir became the frame for exploring other restaurant events.
While in Italy, we were struck by our own culture's lack of something fundamental in its appreciation for the richness of a place and its potential to provide in a cyclic and enduring way for our most basic needs. In Italy, especially in the rural villages, it is everywhere evident that people share a rooted connection to their locality, which provides a clear context for living. Despite global or foreign influences, the uniqueness--call it the "thereness"--of Chianti, the hills of the Langhe, or the Emilian plains, is unmistakable. This is no more clearly expressed than in the way people appreciate and continually recapitulate customs associated with eating and drinking.
As a locally sustained restaurant that finds its inspiration in what comes to us seasonally from our surrounding farmlands, we would like to think we have made some progress toward promoting a similar appreciation. Yet how does one establish an appreciation when a community is, in the main, comprised of first- and second-generation residents of disparate cultural backgrounds, with no discernable connection to food production, where there is little basis for local food traditions, and where any common understanding of the genuine is quickly diluted by trendmakers and imitators?
We felt we stood to gain a great deal by looking to the Old World. A significant purpose of the '98 trip was to develop an exchange of information and collaboration with winemakers and chefs who, by virtue of being rooted in their own local and longstanding traditions, have a rich undrstanding of terroir and who, in their own right, are also practitioners of terroir. The idea was to discover colleagues who would be open not only to sharing their experience of their own place but also to helping us to understand and mirror our own.
Conversations about Terroir; Dinners Based on Terroir
In February of 1999, we held two conversation/dinner events on terroir introduced by Bob Klein and moderated by Paul Bertolli. We invited winemaker and grower Roberto Stucchi Prinetti of Badia a Coltibuono in Chianti to the first event. Our guests at the second event were winemakers Aldo Vacca, Pietro Ratti, and Paolo Saracco, and chefs Cesare and Oscar Giaccone, all from Piedmont. Among those in attendance were some of the farmers who supply the restaurant--members of the Community Alliance for Family Farms (CAFF)--whom we invited, along with the general audience, to share their comments. The conversations helped to clarify the meaning of terroir and to provide various perspectives. The dinners and wines were intended in a general way to allow people to appreciate what terroir tastes like. A distillation of both conversations follows.
Terroir is a French word. In its most limited sense, it means soil. Applied to wine, and by extension to other food crops, it refers to the whole natural environment of a viticultural site or food-growing area. Its closest equivalent in English is microclimate. A terroir, in its most local sense, is a single vineyard (cru) or portion thereof, or a specific plot of land. More comprehensively, it can refer to a territory or region such as Bordeaux, the Napa Valley, or Walla Walla Washington. Whether on a small geographical scale or larger one, the term terroir is used to describe the whole complex of environmental factors that shape the flavor of a wine or food irrespective of genetics.
In one sense--scientifically--terroir is measurable. Factors such as temperature, amount of rainfall and humidity, soil constituents such as nutrients and minerals, geology, light exposure, altitude, slope, and permeability of water through the soil can be quantified. Terroir also has an evocative or poetic dimension which is more subjective and beyond measure. For instance, descriptors such as "wildness," "mineral," "dusty," "tarry," "gamey," are used to describe wine. But from either perspective, terroir remains impossible to prove since it describes such a vast complex of interrelated factors that cannot be traced conclusively. Terroir is a mystery. It is like the human personality--generally describable, yet specifically unlike any other and with no easily reconstructed origin.
There is a human dimension to terroir: To the extent that the farmer affects any part of the natural system--altering or amending the soil, irrigating, using cover crops and crop rotation, and other plant or environment management--he affects terroir. Ultimately, terroir is expressed in a man-made product. It follows that methods of vinification and the raising and seasoning of the wine with wood might mask terroir. So it follows with cooking. But, as Aldo Vacca states it, "Terroir always wins. Terroir is stronger than technique." Terroir nevertheless has powerful enemies in over-fertilization and over-cropping. Vines that are kept stressed produce a more intense terroir character in the wine. Likewise, other kinds of fruit that are thinned early for lower yields tend to concentrate flavor and character.
For Roberto Stucchi Prinetti, recognizing terroir and its important attribute-- uniqueness--requires objectivity. It's "like the forest and the trees"--one needs to stand outside the forest to ascertain the character of the whole. His own experience of having been raised in Milan and spending vacations at Badia a Coltibuono exemplifies the comment. He always enjoyed a connection with the soil and what grows there. Roberto says he learned a lot about terroir from the native weeds. In his view, terroir has much to do with three central ideas: preservation, diversity, and memory. Preservation is critical. Without it, the unique sense of a place can be lost through mistreatment and unconsidered development. One of the farmers added that terroir is becoming an important concept because of environmental sensitivity combined with the need to preserve farmland. Yet, while preservation is important, it must also be recognized that there is no naturally untouched, pure terroir. Roberto gave as an example the forests surrounding the Badia which have been managed from the Etruscan period forward. For him "terroir is not a static thing." Science has shown that there is no objective reality that can be observed--that the very act of observing reality changes it. So, terroir must always incorporate the complexity of the many "small acts" that affect it.
Terroir is also strongly reflective of, and dependent on, genetic diversity. Roberto mentioned the "wealth of inherited information" that is available through the various clones of a single vine. Trying to make things the same is tantamount to "killing something." Flattening diversity also flattens us.
Roberto posited that the concept of terroir expands with insights from Science. He mentions the research of a Bolognese geneticist who has found no genetic differences among clonal selections of San Giovese grapes from various places. Instead, he says, there may be non-lethal viruses that affect the grape clusters in various ways in various locations and these may account for the differences in character. Just as microorganisms in the human body have an effect on it, so the vine, its fruit, and ultimately the wine, may be similarly affected.
Paul Bertolli asked how terroir is recognizable if a great diversity of different crops or clonal varieties is grown in one place. Recognizing and supporting terroir would seem to suggest that monoculture is the one way through which to understand it. Roberto is against the limitation of diversity. While he is focused on protecting the uniqueness of a place and continuing to grow the old crops, he would not support growing only one "ideal" crop. In approaching the growing of vegetables he would first look at what is traditional in an area, always keeping an open mind. The idea of returning to what has been grown in a place repeatedly over time is what Roberto means when he stresses the importance of memory. He said that experimentation only increases diversity, suggesting that diversity is in keeping with the idea that terroir is not static and that good land management encompasses diversity.
Bob Klein asked Roberto a question about tradition and innovation. Given that terroir-ists make decisions based on "what's there," and that in modern marketing the global ideal rules, to what extent is Roberto inner- or outer-directed? Roberto responded that while it is critical to preserve tradition at the Badia, it should not be a "static museum." It should be a cross between the Vatican and the Exploratorium, a place rooted in tradition but something "you can stick your hands into." To this end he would consider innovations such as serving at the Badia's trattoria the traditional Tuscan panzanella, but made perhaps with couscous (made with the wheat grown on the property). He emphasized that most of the food of Tuscany has come from somewhere else, and that all over the world food has moved around. Food has a time frame and an historical moment, so the question is what is really typical or traditional?
Pietro Ratti provided a graphic description of the regional and local terroirs of Piedmont. Piedmont is a foothill surrounded by the Alps. As such, it enjoys protection from Atlantic winds, and a continental climate which produces hot humid summers, cold humid winters, and mild springs. Since the Mediterranean Sea originally stretched from Venice to the western coast, the soils are all based on oceanic sediment, while nevertheless varying among themselves considerably. Viticulture has been practiced from pre-Roman times in Piedmont and, with it, have evolved the main varietals and the character of their locations.
Wine-growing areas in Piedmont tend to be small. Barolo, for instance, has only 3,000 acres of vines. Small properties and the focus on "single-vineyard experience" among the 1,200 landowners in Barolo have taught them much about the relationship between soils and the different flavors in the wines. Pietro says that, as winemakes, "We try to understand what our ancestors taught us and to understand what the soil gives us. The vineyard [with help from man] makes the wine." This sentiment was echoed by all the other winemakers. For Pietro, the goal is to reveal the terroir. That requires many years of experience. The vinification is directed toward "not covering the wine."
Paolo Saracco described Moscato, saying that, except for its unique and rich perfume, it is undistinguished as a wine grape. To capture and maximize that perfume, it is absolutely necessary to have the right "synthesis" of natural factors supporting it. In this regard he mentions altitude, climate (that typical of the northern Langhe and south of Monferrato) and a combination of sandy and calcareous soils. The goal of the Moscato maker is to "put the grapes in the bottle." Unlike other wines, which undergo a period of transformation in aging, Moscato is drunk as fresh as possible. As such, it is a particularly transparent vehicle for terroir. As Paolo sees it, the right terroir is essential in realizing the full potential for perfume from the grape.
There were a number of comments from all the speakers about our California efforts to produce terroir-distinctive wines and foods. Paolo was surprised to see and taste how Napa Valley winemakers, many of whom are using French varietals, have paid such close attention to the given conditions of their local soils rather than adapting European traditions of winemaking. Aldo Vacca was impressed to see people "hungry for terroir," and noted that there is enormous potential for farmers who learn to respect their land and its terroir. By respecting the land, a farmer can discern which crop does best, since "everything can't grow everywhere." Cesare Giaccone praised the efforts of young food producers in west Marin County who are making excellent local farm products. He was particularly impressed with the quality of the crescenza cheese he tasted from Bellwether Farm, the bread from the stone oven at Bay Village, and Nan McEvoy's new olive oil. He thought that, supported by restaurants and food retailers, such efforts would very likely transform the level of food in California.
Steve Edmunds, a local winemaker, spoke of the impossibility of separating terroir from culture--from the integrity of people and their connection to their land. For those who live in a place where it is alive, terroir is bred in the bone--part of the fabric. How people live in the terroir affects the maintenance of it. He believes that the interest in terroir comes from a strong longing for it.
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