Terroir: Finding where you are in a glass of wine

savannah-chanelle is a shining example of santa cruz mountains terroir

(written for the Los Altos Town Crier)

I’ll never forget my first glass of good red wine. It happened while I was in college, full of heady independence and curiosity. It helped that I had this glass with a dear girlfriend named Dawn. Dawn knew the chef of a small, hole-in-the-wall, jewel of a restaurant tucked away in the parking lot of a boat-launch site. He pointed us in the direction of the right wine for our dinner. I am forever grateful for that first, extraordinary introduction.

The wine was a Wild Horse Pinot Noir, and two things happened when I drank it. First, my eyes sprung wide open to the way wine amplifies the pleasure of a meal. Second, the wine was produced near where I lived at the time, and I was blown away by its ability to encapsulate that place.

Called “terroir” in French, a sense of place is what I believe makes wine a mainstay in the life of any true bon vivant. The way a bottle of wine exists as a time capsule of the geography, climate and geology of where it was produced is delicious and – pardon the pun – intoxicating.

The notion of terroir may be intimidating at first. Imagine the ability to blind taste a wine and accurately call out where, when and what it was from. But terroir can be as comfortable as recognizing a village you’ve visited just by seeing a photo of the surrounding hills. Once you have a sense of a place, you can taste that place in the wine you drink.

To prove this to yourself, drink wine that is produced near where you live. When traveling, wallow in the local libations. Then, bring wine home from your trips to drink back home. I bet the memories of that vacation will come flooding back, just like hearing a song from your days in high school can make you giddy with memory.

Terroir is at the center of the French Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC). Using a sense of place to designate an appellation makes sense, and the AOC has served as a model for how wine appellations are designated around the globe.

We have the Santa Cruz Mountains appellation in our backyard, which includes wineries located in and near Los Gatos, Saratoga, San Jose and Santa Cruz. A weekend drive along the windy back roads of Saratoga left me wallowing in our closest terroir recently. Harvest was in full swing, and the air was thick with aromas of the fruit local wineries were bringing in. In celebration of all things harvest, I brought home a bottle of Savannah-Chanelle’s 2011 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir and made my butternut squash carbonara (recipe below).

Spaghetti alla Butternut Squash Carbonara

• 5 slices thick-cut bacon, cubed
• 12 ounces butternut squash, cooked
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Fresh sage or thyme for garnish
• 1 pound thin spaghetti

Boil large pot of water. In large skillet, brown bacon. Add cooked squash and sauté briefly. Remove bacon and squash from pan and drain on paper towels.

Cook spaghetti according to package directions, reserving 1 cup of pasta cooking water prior to draining.

While pasta is cooking, return bacon and squash to pan and ladle 1 cup of pasta cooking water into mixture. Remove pan from heat.

Drain and add pasta to pan. Add egg yolks and toss to incorporate fully. Add cheese, herbs, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.