At the end of jan 05 in your turn in a response to David Graves of Saintsbury winery's interesting points about the effect of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere on grape ripening, fellow American David Schildknecht bemoaned the lack of real, hard scientific fact about the influence of geology on wine quality.
This lacuna in our wine knowledge has been obvious for some time and I am therefore delighted to announce the first international conference devoted solely to the topic of terroir as it affects wine. It is the brainchild of Kenneth Verosub, Distinguished Professor of Geology at UC Davis and will take place 19-22 mar 06. Held under the auspices of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at Davis, it is designed as a dialogue between earth scientists and winemakers. "Our primary goal for the conference,” says Professor Verosub, “is to bring together people engaged in the scientific study of those aspects of the natural environment that might find expression in the grapes or the wine and people engaged in the growing of grapes and the making of wine." But he stresses that anyone with an interest in wine is welcome to participate.
There will be field trips to terroirs in northern California both before and after the conference
More details may be found at www.terroir2006.ucdavis.edu where you can sign up for regular information bulletins about an event that shoudl genuinely advance our knowledge if successful.