. . . or so say researchers:
We see many winemakers referencing their wines' "minerality." Whether it's oyster shells in the wines of Marlborough, New Zealand, or Burgundy's limestone, or the Sierra Foothills AVA's decomposed granite, many wines are marketed as having unique minerals in the wine.
It's almost as if making wines is more like a rock and mineral show than a study in fruit.
But a fascinating article shows that minerals in wine are not detectable by humans. Really? Yep. There are certain smells and flavors that we associate with minerals, but we cannot detect the minerals per se--there just aren't enough ppm of the minerals in the wine, for us to be able to notice them.
One example is flint. Flint is silica, which is what we make glass from. Flint is odorless and tasteless. We make glass from it precisely because it's odorless and tasteless. Ergo, it can't be a taste or aroma in wine.
However, we all know that smell after a summer rain on hot rocks. We all know what "flinty" means in a wine descriptor. So I think that even though the minerals aren't perceptible to us, there are other smells and flavors (perhaps from the fruit?) which we describe as mineral in origin. No harm, no foul. And as we know, grapes are the original chimeras of the plant world: Grapes alone are able to mimic the bouquets and flavors of other fruits. Yes! Just think of the many fruits we taste in grape wine: strawberry, kiwi, citrus, blackberry, apple, peach, pear, currant . . .
Read the article here.
(photo credit: geology.com)
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