The Unseen Architects of Flavour

Wine Yeast and the Role of non-Saccharomyces Yeast in Shaping Terroir

When reading about wine, you need not look long before a mention of the French term terroir crops up. This holistic term, lacking a direct English translation, encompasses all the environmental influences that determine the characteristics of a wine (or other agricultural products such as cheese). It is the intangible mix of soil, climate, and topography, and how they interact with the plant to create distinctive qualities in the final product. Understanding terroir is critical not only to appreciating wine quality but also to grasping the cultural significance of the French attitude towards wine. This holds that a wine and its qualities are determined by the place it comes from above all else. While many believe that the quality of a wine comes down to a winemaker’s actions post-harvest, the influence of the location in which the grapes were grown is undeniable. You can make good wine from most grapes, but great wine is made in the vineyard. Or so the trope goes.

What is fascinating a…