Old Pod, New Context -- Re-release of Ep 191: Proving Terroir is Real with BiomeMakers
Wine for Normal People
Wine for Normal People
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
In light of new research and the Terroir Seminar that I did with Laura Catena, Fernando Buscema, and Jane Anson, I thought it would be really helpful to re-release this show and draw your attention to it. BiomeMakers had answered many the questions that terroir seminar addressed, and that the Catena Institute's paper elaborated upon. I encourage you to listen and see how, even 4.5 years ago, we were on the trail of figuring out some vital things about terroir (and what winemaking can do to it).
Here are the original show notes:
Is terroir a concept concocted by the French to hide flaws, as some suggest? Or is it a real thing that can be tasted and measured? John Dimos from Biome Makers and Wine Seq has a tool that resolves the question. In this nerdy, fascinating podcast we dig into the details and provide solid answers to the questions below! I never thought we'd see this in our lifetimes, but here we are!
1. What is it?! John tells us the premise of Biome Makers and how it's an affordable and viable premise now vs 5 years ago
- Why people have denied the presence of "terroir" in wine
- How Biome Makers changed the game on the notion of terroir by studying and classifying microbiomes in the soil
- How soil variation impacts on grapes
- The effect of the biomes v chemicals from winemaking in the final wine?
- Who is this tool for and how will they use it?
- Given that terroir is a real thing and that it CAN be detected in many wines, why isn't expressed in all wine (or food for that matter)?
- How is this new tool going to change wine growing going forward based on the study and understanding of microbiomes?
- Will it empower people to take more "risks" on farming organically?
- Does this steal the "art" from grape growing/winemaking?
I encourage you to check out the site and to follow them on Facebook and Twitter. A company that surely will change the way winemaking happens!
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I know that we already said that the Sardinia podcast was going to be the last one, but I just |
| 0:07.6 | always want more. I had to re-release this podcast. It has been sticking in my head. I've |
| 0:13.8 | referred other people to it. And now it's really just time to re-release it because it was done |
| 0:19.2 | in 2017. And it's one of these shows, one of these conversations that sticks in my head as being |
| 0:27.1 | this real pivotal moment for me, setting the stage. The podcast is with a guy named John Demos. |
| 0:33.0 | He's actually no longer with the company Biome makers, which is a company out of Spain. |
| 0:38.0 | The conversation that we have is around the Biome maker's technology. Now the thing about |
| 0:43.2 | John was that he was an investment banker. So we talk a lot about risk management, which is |
| 0:48.4 | very funny. And he has a PhD in biogenetics that he was also a white maker. So he had a whole |
| 0:55.2 | I didn't see him in any of my classes. The point is the work that he did at Biome makers, |
| 1:02.8 | the work that they're still doing with Biome makers, and the findings, the ideas about the |
| 1:08.2 | micro-terroir. Soil is alive. There is health in the soil. The microbes exist. They are important |
| 1:15.3 | to terroir. The nutrients, we talked about the nutrients and how the process works, |
| 1:21.6 | what's living in the soil. And there's just so much to learn. Wine-making versus terroir. He |
| 1:26.9 | really answers that question better than anyone else. Why is terroir not showing up in certain |
| 1:33.8 | wines? He answers it beautifully. The timing is good because you've done so much with terroir |
| 1:39.6 | recently. That seminar with Laura Katena of Pranada Poshema and Jane Anson on the YouTube channel, |
| 1:46.6 | Wine for Normal People, YouTube channel. He gives this great quote from the usual suspect. |
| 1:51.6 | Remember that movie? Yeah. The devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist. |
| 1:57.2 | So he says about terroir. I think it's pretty cool, right? I do have to update you and say that |
| 2:02.6 | Marina Marfereino from Barbarasco is no longer the only organic producer, but in 2017 she was. |
| 2:09.8 | Or at least she was the only one that was this fully established and certified. So things have |
... |
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