Happy Vines, Happy Wines
12-Bottle Sampler
by Dustin Soiseth
Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have been making wine for over eight millennia, and cultivating grapevines for a few thousand years prior to that. It’s quite a relationship, and the other day I came across an interesting explanation for this long-term love affair. A winemaker suggested that our affinity for the fruit of the vine stems (pun intended) from the fact that both humans and grapevines like the same spots on earth. If you stand in a vineyard you’ll just naturally feel good, and the vines feel it, too. Setting aside the merits of this particular theory, we take it as an article of faith here at KLWM that a sense of place is an essential component of good wine. Whether it’s a grape that thrives in a singular location—think Arneis grown on the foggy hillsides of the Langhe—or a blend that defines a region, like Grenache-based reds from the rocky vineyards of the southern Rhône, some of our favorite wines are inextricably linked to their places of origin. Jacquère in Savoie, Sangiovese in Tuscany, Dolcetto in Piedmont—all are examples of a vine that really loves a particular spot on planet Earth.