The Chemistry of Wine Making

Terroir. Tairrrr-wahrrrr. Roll those r's around your mouth as a Frenchman would. Gargle softly with them; squirt them through your teeth and from one cheek to the other, as if they were a 1990 Chambertin. Then go walking in late winter through the storied vineyards of Chambertin, in Burgundy, where great clods of thawed mud-terroir-will stick to your shoes. Scrape it off with a limestone shard you've plucked from one of the ancient crumbling walls. That, too, is terroir.