Terry Theise on a sense of place
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The influence of the vineyard’s growing climate, a perennial issue in winemaking, has become a hot topic recently. In July, winemakers and association leaders from both sides of the Atlantic met in Napa to sign the “Napa declaration” on protecting place names. Next March, the first ever conference on terroir will occur at UC Davis.
Between now and the UC Davis conference, I will run a periodic series of contributions on the subject of terroir. First up is importer Terry Theise. Rather than simply printing a listing of his excellent wines imported from Germany and Austria and micro-champagnes from France, Theise publishes a thick catalogue including several essays. By special arrangement, I reproduce here his essay on a sense of place from his 2005 Austrian catalogue. His web site sums up his world view: “…[Theise] has no reservations about conveying his thoughts and feelings on wine, life, sex, philosophy and general cosmology. In Terry’s world, it’s all inter-related.”
Why does place-specificity matter?
By Terry Theise
Once upon a time I sat on a panel discussing spirit-of-place, and a Native American woman to my left said something that lodged on my heart and has not moved since.
The salmon do not only return to the stream, she said, in order to spawn; they also return in order to respond to the prayers and hopes of the people who love them.
I thought that remark was innocuous enough, so I was taken aback when someone responded it was “pretentious New Age bullshit” (or words to that effect). I recognize there are sensibilities other than mine, more linear, more prosaic. Yet with all respect, most thoughts along the “mystical” continuum are reducible to linear equations if one wishes to frame them thus. Continue…
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On September 6th, 2005 at 8:41 pm ,Terence Hughes wrote:
Thanks for sharing this with us, Dr. V. I definitely do not think that this is “pretentious bullshit.” This is kind of why we LOVE wine and find it endlessly fascinating.
On September 24th, 2005 at 12:54 am ,michael baker wrote:
Mr. Theise, like wines of place, are worth notice and comment. I love it when I can’t tell the difference between a romantic anecdote and a pitch.
On April 9th, 2006 at 12:20 pm ,Ramona Ray wrote:
Just yesterday, I was trying to explain this precise concept to a friend who knows little about wine. Now, here it is explained so eloquently. I shall forward the link and I believe my friend will get that “Ah-ha!” moment out of it. That’s priceless. Thank you!