Geology and wine flavour

Before modern science, winemakers thought, understandably, that vines and hence wine were made entirely of matter derived from the soil, and laid the basis for the European tradition of a special alliance between soil and wine that continues today (see terroir). Despite discoveries such as the pre-eminent roles of photosynthesis and microbial fermentation, it still seems de rigueur in winery descriptions to at least mention the vineyard geology, and often to extol some special virtue. For some enthusiasts, the Earth–wine relationship approaches the mystical, an intimacy unparalleled in any other agricultural product.