How neuroscience can make your wine taste better

Contributed by Libby Brodie

Our environment can change the way we perceive taste

Neuroscience and wine may not seem like immediate bedfellows, but some producers are putting the time in to find out how drinkers are affected by things like our surroundings and assumptions. This in turn offers some insights into how to make the wine you serve taste better.

Dr. Qian Janice Wang, on behalf of Ramón Bilbao’s Spanish Wine Academy, says: “All our senses go into drinking wine and all of them can be tricked”. People drinking the same wine rated it as tastier when listening to the sound of a cork being popped than when they heard a screwcap. A sound is a useful tool for wine bars and restaurants as people tend to eat and drink more in noisier surroundings and are willing to pay more at a restaurant playing jazz or classical music than somewhere playing pop.

I was part of a neuroscience experiment led by Wang in which we were given two wines and asked to describe what they smelled like while two different pieces of music were played. At the risk of putting us wine communicators out of a job, everyone in the room described different scents when listening to alternate pieces of music, despite the wine being exactly the same.

The way we perceive wine can change depending on our environment

Thankfully, when it came to actually tasting the wine, I realized they were identical, but it does show how the mind can be manipulated. Touch also has a huge impact on our perception of a drink. There is an old study in which people were asked to stroke velvet and then sandpaper and those with the velvet described drinking smoother, more luxurious wines. This may be why members' clubs in London plump for soft and velvety furnishings. Note to self, as I dash to pick out velvet-covered dining room chairs.

Maison Mumm has led several tests regarding sight and the weight of glasses involving neuroscience. Visibly pouring the same wine into different glasses, for example, did nothing to stop our senses from being tricked. When sipping from a dark-tinted, heavy glass the bubbles seemed to disappear, as if we were drinking a deeper, almost red wine. In a frosted, light aluminum glass, the wine’s acidity came to the fore. Interestingly, the heavier glass made wines seem older and richer, while the spindly glass made them taste younger and fresher.

Fascinatingly, different cultures prefer their wines in different glasses. In South Africa a heavier glass was found to be better, echoing the riper, full-bodied styles of the region, whereas in Japan, the preference was for wines served in a lighter glass.

In London, we like the feeling a weightier vessel gives, so perhaps bear that in mind when purchasing glassware. Are weighted stems and bases the way forward for the savvy host? It works with cutlery too, says Wang. “People feel their food looks better and are willing to pay more when eating with a heavier knife and fork,” she says with a smile. “I believe the Fat Duck has the heaviest cutlery in the UK”.
 

 

ON WINERY VISITS AND THE AESTHETICS OF TOIL

Contributed by D. Furrow

Most aesthetics is dominated by aesthetics of distance, especially distance from the origins of a work. The aesthetics of wine is no exception. Just as we learn to appreciate a finished painting, so we learn to appreciate a finished wine. And although we pay attention to what the finished wine reveals about the geographic location in which the grapes were grown or the community in which it was made, we are still distanced from that time and place. We consume wine many years after it was made and often many miles from the land that gave birth to it.

But the wine world is not satisfied with this distance. Winery visits have become the norm not only for journalists, writers, and students of wine but for consumers as well. This gets us closer to a different kind of aesthetic experience, one in which farming activities, toil, and hardship play a central role.

The aesthetics of viticulture is an aesthetics of active, precise, sensuous discrimination in a constantly changing environment. Thus, it is appropriate to call it “aesthetics.” The anticipation of a change in weather; subtle shifts in wind patterns; changes in humidity which dictate a change in work processes; the feel of the location on the vine to be pruned; the visual presentation of nascent disease; or of ripening patterns in the vineyard that indicate the rescheduling of the harvest; the interrupted hum of a tractor engine about to sputter and stop; the silence of the vineyard when the work stops—all contribute to the aesthetics of the work process that is part of the allure of wine.

There is also the rhythm of the seasons and the repetition of the seasonal work that must be done each year. But also the sensitivity and engagement required to recognize the disruptive fluctuations in that seasonal repetition that mark the difference between success and failure in a particular vintage.

The aesthetics of work perhaps most importantly includes the sensuous pleasure of a job well done—the precision of a pruned vineyard, the gleam of polished winery equipment, the coordinated flow of efficient pickers on a chilly harvest morning, or the perfect execution of racking juice from one container to another. These are moments appreciated because the sensuous pleasure was earned by hard labor.
Of course, as visitors to a winery, our experience of this dimension is second or third-hand. An in-depth tour will give us a glimpse of that aesthetic experience that only the people doing the labor can have in its full-blown intensity.

It’s only an aesthetic of “sight-seeing” after all made possible by disposable time and income. But one of the joys of wine appreciation nevertheless.
 

 

How Saliva Changes the Flavor of Food

The liquid impacts how we perceive taste and can influence what we choose to eat

By Chris Gorski

Saliva impacts how different foods taste. Silke Woweries via Getty Images

At first glance, saliva seems like pretty boring stuff, merely a convenient way to moisten our food. But the reality is quite different, as scientists are beginning to understand. The fluid interacts with everything that enters the mouth, and even though it is 99 percent water, it has a profound influence on the flavors — and our enjoyment — of what we eat and drink. “It is a liquid, but it’s not just a liquid,” says oral biologist Guy Carpenter of King’s College London.

Scientists have long understood some of saliva’s functions: It protects the teeth, makes speech easier and establishes a welcoming environment for foods to enter the mouth. But researchers are now finding that saliva is also a mediator and a translator, influencing how food moves through the mouth and how it sparks our senses. Emerging evidence suggests that interactions between saliva and food may even help to shape which foods we like to eat.

The substance is not very salty, which allows people to taste the saltiness of a potato chip. It’s not very acidic, which is why a spritz of lemon can be so stimulating. The fluid’s water and salivary proteins lubricate each mouthful of food, and its enzymes such as amylase and lipase kickstart the process of digestion. This wetting also dissolves the chemical components of taste, or tastants, into saliva so they can travel to and interact with the taste buds. Through saliva, says Jianshe Chen, a food scientist at Zhejiang Gongshang University in Hangzhou, China, “we detect chemical information of food: the flavor, the taste.”

Chen coined the term “food oral processing” in 2009 to describe the multidisciplinary field that draws on food science, the physics of food materials, the body’s physiological and psychological responses to food, and more, a subject he wrote about in the 2022 Annual Review of Food Science and Technology. When people eat, he explains, they don’t actually savor the food itself, but a mixture of the food plus saliva. For example, an eater can perceive a sweet- or sour- tasting molecule in a bite of food only if that molecule can reach the taste buds — and for that to happen, it must pass through the layer of saliva that coats the tongue.

That’s not a given, says Carpenter, who points to how flat soda tastes sweeter than fizzy soda. Researchers had assumed this was because bursting bubbles of carbon dioxide in fresh soda provided an acidic hit that essentially distracted the brain from the sweetness. But when Carpenter and his colleagues studied the process in the lab in a sort of artificial mouth, they found that saliva prevented the soda’s bubbles from flowing between tongue and palate. Carpenter thinks these backed-up bubbles could physically block the sugars from reaching the taste receptors on the tongue. With flat soda, no bubbles build up to block the sweet taste.

Saliva can also affect the aromas — which are responsible for the vast majority of our perception of flavor — that arise from food in the mouth. As we chew, some flavor molecules in the food dissolve in the saliva, but those that don’t can waft up into the nasal cavity to be sensed by the myriad receptors there. As a result, people with different salivary flow rates, or different saliva composition — especially of proteins called mucins — may have very different flavor experiences from the same food or beverage.

For example, Spanish researchers measured the flow of saliva in 10 volunteers who evaluated wine to which fruity-flavored esters had been added. Volunteers who produced more saliva tended to score the flavors as more intense, possibly because they swallowed more often and thus forced more aromas into their nasal passages, the scientists found. So wine enthusiasts proud of their ability to detect nuances of aroma may have their spit to thank, at least in part.

Saliva also plays a star role in our perceptions of texture. Take astringency, that dry feeling that happens in the mouth when you drink red wine or eat unripe fruit. The wine doesn’t actually make your mouth drier. Instead, molecules called tannins in the wine can cause proteins to precipitate out of the saliva so that it no longer lubricates as effectively.

Silke Woweries via Getty Images

When you sip a glass of wine, aromatic molecules such as fruity-smelling esters (colored dots in glass) mix with the saliva in your mouth. This interaction traps some molecules, while others pass into the throat passages (upper diagram). From there, these molecules drift upward to the olfactory region in the nasal passages, where they are perceived as fruity flavors (lower diagram). Since saliva differs in composition and flow rate from person to person, this may allow the same glass of wine to evoke different flavors for each person. Adapted from C. Criado et al. / Food Research International 2019

Saliva also helps us to perceive the difference between high-fat and low-fat foods. Even if two yogurts look the same and pour the same, a low-fat version feels drier in the mouth, says Anwesha Sarkar, a food scientist at the UK’s University of Leeds. “What you’re trying to understand is not the property of the food, but how the food is interacting with the surface,” Sarkar says. Milk fat can combine with saliva to create a layer of droplets on the surface of the mouth that can mask astringency and add a feeling of richness to the yogurt, she says.

Sarkar’s research uses a mechanical tongue, bathed in artificial saliva, as a way to simulate what happens as food moves through the mouth and how that influences the sensory experience of eating. A smoothie with lower fat, Sarkar says, might look creamy at first glance but will lack that textural luxuriousness fat provides upon mixing with saliva.

Fully understanding these interactions between saliva, food and the mouth — and how the information transfers to the brain — could lead to the design of healthier foods, says Sarkar. She envisions developing a “gradient food” that might include enough sugar on the outside of the food to dissolve in saliva to give a sense of sweetness but it would be at a lower concentration and calorie level in the whole food. She says a similar conceptual approach could help reduce fat in foods.

But understanding these interactions well enough to develop such foods won’t be easy, because saliva and perception vary throughout the day and between individuals. Generally, saliva flows slowly in the morning and fastest in the early afternoon. And the components of any individual’s saliva — the amounts of certain proteins, for example — will vary throughout the day, and in the presence or absence of stimuli such as tantalizing aromas.

Oral biochemist Elsa Lamy of the University of Évora in Portugal investigated this by blindfolding volunteers, letting them smell a piece of bread for about four minutes, while monitoring their saliva for changes. Two types of protein, starch-digesting amylases and others called cystatins that have been linked to taste sensitivity and perception, increased after exposure to the bread, she found. Lamy’s group has done similar experiments with vanilla and lemons, and in all cases found changes in the levels of saliva proteins, though the specific changes depended on the food presented. Her team is now working to understand what function this may serve.

The makeup of saliva varies from person to person — and that depends partly on an individual’s past food choices, says Ann-Marie Torregrossa, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University at Buffalo. When Torregrossa fed rats diets containing bitter-tasting additives, she observed noticeable increases in multiple categories of saliva proteins. As those changes happened, rats became more likely to accept the bitterness in their food. “The way we think about this is, if you eat broccoli all the time, broccoli doesn’t taste bad to you,” says Torregrossa.

In another experiment, Torregrossa used catheters to transfer saliva collected from rats that were accustomed to eating bitter diets into the mouths of rats that were not. The naive animals became more tolerant of bitter food, despite their lack of exposure. But control animals that weren’t supplied with the pumped-in, bitterness-tolerant saliva proteins still rejected the bitter food.

Torregrossa says she and her team have yet to figure out exactly which proteins are responsible for this tolerance. They have a couple of likely candidates, including proline-rich proteins and protease inhibitors, but there could be others. They need to know which proteins are involved before they can assess how responses to bitter flavors are being tweaked in the mouth and the brain.

To see whether an individual’s diet affects the composition of its saliva, researchers gathered saliva from rats habituated to a diet including bitter-tasting quinine. Then they infused that saliva (with or without added quinine) into the mouths of rats that were not used to quinine. The researchers then measured the rats’ aversive responses such as mouth movements, sticking out the tongue or licking paws. Rats that received whole saliva from bitter-experienced rats did not respond aversively to quinine, while those that received plain water or artificial saliva did. This anti-bitter effect of saliva from experienced rats appears to be caused by salivary proteins: filtering the saliva to remove proteins abolishes the protective effect. Adapted from L.E. Martin et al. / Physiology & Behavior 2020 

Of course, rats aren’t people — but researchers have found hints that saliva is doing similar things to taste perception in people, though the picture is more complicated. “There are a lot of other things in human diets and experiences that are influencing our day-to-day experience, particularly with foods and flavors, that rodents just do not have to deal with,” says Lissa Davis, a sensory and nutrition scientist at Purdue University who studies taste and behavior.

But if these patterns can be decoded and understood, the potential is great, says Lamy. If you could somehow provide kids with an additive that encourages changes to their saliva and therefore makes their experience with a bitter vegetable more palatable, it could encourage healthier eating. If their first experience with a new food isn’t accompanied by a high level of bitterness, she says, “probably they will associate a good experience with that vegetable.”

More broadly, building a better understanding of how saliva influences taste — and how diet, in turn, influences the composition of saliva — could open up a host of new ways to nudge dietary preferences toward healthy foods that are often reviled. “How,” says Torregrossa, “can we turn the haters into people who love these foods? That’s what I’m obsessed with.”
 

 

 

Morgain Twain-Peterson stands among the 152 acres of field blend vines planted by Sen. George Hearst in 1888 in Sonoma Valley. The Bedrock Wine Co. and his father Joel Peterson, with Once and Future Wines, now make wines from the ancient vines that were saved from removal in 2004. (John Burgess/ Press Democrat)

Clawing at the sky like gnarled bursts of lightning, the 130-year-old grapevines at Bedrock Vineyard in Sonoma are pillars of survival. There are nearly 30 varieties in this vineyard — burly, twisted limbs pruned goblet-style.

They look like trees in an arthritic pygmy forest. Bedrock Vineyard was planted in 1888 and today is meticulously cared for by winemaker Morgan Twain-Peterson and his father, winemaker Joel Peterson.

The 35-acre “field blend” vineyard contains zinfandel, alicante bouchet, mourvedre, carignane, tempranillo and petite sirah, as well as more obscure varieties, such as peloursin, mondeuse, negrette, serine and more, many of which are combined to produce Twain-Peterson’s award-winning wines.

These are some of Sonoma County’s oldest vines. But the story behind them is sometimes muddied with myth.

Some say they were planted by Italian winemakers. Others believe they were planted haphazardly, because there are so many varieties in a single vineyard.  But in fact, these vines — sometimes encompassing up to 50 varieties in a single vineyard — were planted with great deliberation and foresight. And that foresight is still paying off today, according to John Olney, winemaker at Ridge Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley.

“The proof is in the pudding when it comes to field blends,” Olney said. ”People were deliberate in choosing the grapes they did because it’s clear they complement each other.”

But how did so many varieties come to be in one vineyard?

The answer is rooted in the crisis that nearly ended grape growing in Sonoma County for good.

Devastation hits

These intermingled varieties — recognized as field blends — were no accident or haphazard experiment.

“Field-blend vineyards came out of a concerted, organized effort to produce higher-quality, well-balanced wines in the 1880s,” said Twain-Peterson, winemaker and owner of Bedrock Wine Co. in Sonoma. “It all started with phylloxera.”
 

Vines planted in 1888 in the 152-acre Bedrock field blend vineyard in the Sonoma Valley: Mataro. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

In 1873, grape phylloxera — a destructive, sap-sucking insect that feasts on the roots of certain Vitis grapevine species — was officially documented in California, in a vineyard 2 miles north of the town of Sonoma. By the 1880s, phylloxera had quickly spread from Sonoma County to vineyards across the state, decimating every vineyard in its path.

Thousands of diseased vines were ripped out in California, leaving empty fields across the landscape. Bedrock Vineyard was first planted in 1854, but like every vineyard in the state, it, too, was wiped out by the scourge.

Faced with a potential death knell for California’s burgeoning commercial grape industry, state legislators went back to the basics to find a way forward for grape growers.

They established the Board of State Viticultural Commissioners, a collaborative of scientists, academics, winemakers and nurserymen who hopefully could solve the phylloxera crisis, set standards for grape imports and improve wine quality overall.

The board and its chief executive viticultural officer, Charles Wetmore, worked with growers and nurserymen to test 200 grape varieties to determine which vines would perform best, given the state’s weather and soil conditions.

They found they could control phylloxera by grafting imported grapevines onto American Vitis rootstock known as St. George. Now, the viticultural board could provide science-backed guidance to growers on which grape varieties to plant.

“Phylloxera really forced growers to wipe the slate clean and pull out vines that made no sense in California,” Olney said. “What we ended up with are these diversely planted vineyards that continue to produce extremely well-balanced wines. Field blends are the silver lining of phylloxera.”

Dividends continue

Not only that, the solution the board came up with more than a century ago still has value today in another sense, as grape growers look for stability in a climate that is growing hotter and drier.

At Ridge’s Geyserville vineyard, the “Old Patch” is comprised of vines more than 130 years old. At the winery’s Lytton Springs vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, there are centenarian vines. In both locations, zinfandel vines are intermixed, or “interplanted,” with carignane, petite sirah, mataro (mourvedre) and other grapes, which are used to produce Ridge’s highly regarded wines.

“Zinfandel grapes produce a lot of sugar, typically at the expense of acidity,” Olney said. “Carignane is the opposite. It adds acidity, so when it’s blended with zinfandel it keeps the wine fresh and focused, with flavors more in the red fruit spectrum. Carignane is really important grape for us. It’s going to be even more so as the climate gets warmer.”

While climate change and rising temperatures are a significant concern to most winemakers, Olney said, Ridge’s old vines are faring a lot better than he thought they would in the drought.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Olney said.

“Old vines have deep root systems, which give them easier access to water. Ours are also head-trained so the grape clusters grow in a dappled-sunlight environment. Grapes are like us — when they’re outside all day, they like to have a sun hat. The canopy of a head-trained vine provides that shade.”

Field blends
 

Will Bucklin with a Grenache vine that is believed to have been planed in the 1880s, in his dry-farmed vineyard in September 2021. (Robbi Pengelly / Sonoma Index-Tribune)

At the historic Old Hill Ranch in Glen Ellen, winemaker and grape grower Will Bucklin admitted he’s concerned about water. “The vines are probably faring a lot better than I give them credit for, but there has definitely been a lot of attrition due to the drought and then the heat,” Bucklin said. “I’m still dry farming (farming without irrigation), but I’m concerned I’m going to have to install irrigation next year.”
Founded in 1852 when William McPherson Hill purchased the property from Gen. Vallejo, Old Hill Ranch is now farmed and managed by Bucklin, whose mother and stepfather, Anne and Otto Teller, purchased the ranch in the 1980s. Today, 30 old-vine grape varieties share one vineyard, and it was only until a few years ago that Bucklin could properly identify every vine.

In fact, his Anatomy of a Field Blend map has become something of a wine industry wonder, with its intricate matrix of colored squares that represent every varietal in the vineyard. Among them, you’ll find tannat, trousseau, zinfandel, French colombard, petite sirah, mourvèdre, lenoir and others, including two varieties native to the French Alps, according to their DNA.

“My guess is that some French guy brought them over in his pocket,” Bucklin said. “As for the rest of the vineyard, I have my own theories about why they planted so many different kinds of grapes.”
Bucklin said field blends help farmers to hedge their bets against weather impacts and pest pressures. Having more varieties in the vineyard is like taking out an insurance policy against nature.

“It’s also about creating more balanced wines,” he said. “For me, a lot of that is achieved through cofermentation.”

While modern wine blends are often produced by combining two or more finished wines together before bottling, field blend wines are typically made by harvesting all the varieties at once and co-fermenting them at one time — like a traditional French Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe blend. But this doesn’t mean winemakers of yore were trying to save time by cutting corners. There is evidence that cofermented grapes may affect the color intensity and phenolics, or aromas, of a finished wine.

For Bucklin, old-vine field blends are “incredibly compelling.” He said he’s fallen for them “hook, line and sinker.”

“I get kind of philosophical about it because I project what the vines need,” Bucklin said. “In many ways, the old vines are self-regulating at this stage. They don’t require as much labor because they don’t have as much vigor, and they produce less fruit so you don’t have to thin the clusters. “It’s like when you’re a kid, you need a lot of management. When you’re an adult, you just figure things out.”
 

 

Syrah or Shiraz? A Tell-All About the Popular Grape

Contributed by Sam Zukin

 
As the fourth most planted red grape in the world and the third most planted red grape variety in France, Syrah or Shiraz (depending on location, style, and type) possesses vibrant dark skin with an excellent full-bodied roughness. While its origins remain open to interpretation, several different theories exist. Though Syrah dates back to 13th century Rhone Valley, France, Phocaeans (inhabitants of the titular ancient Greek city off the coast of modern-day Turkey) may have brought it over from Shiraz, Persia, in 600 BCE. Another theory states that the Romans brought the grape from Sicily sometime during the 3rd century. Wherever Syrah came from, it spans the globe, including Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and New Zealand. Syrah grows on approximately 470,000 acres worldwide, with France, Australia, and Spain being the most prominent producers. 

Within France, the Northern Rhône Valley (photo, right) has much prestige with famous regions including Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, and Crozes-Hermitage. The valley has long been marked as the spiritual head of Syrah, and winemakers utilize the area to base their own wine production. Its style is unparalleled on a global scale. Côte-Rôtie employs the practice of co-fermentation when blending Syrah with Viognier rather than blending it after fermentation. Winemakers carry out this process in a couple of ways. They can add the grapes together before or after the crushing process or the Viognier juice to the Syrah blend. This process can lead to more nuance and complexity within the wine, co-pigmentation, and a higher alcohol content due to chaptalization. Hermitage also has its own distinctive winemaking process, which includes destemming, the process of severing the grapes from the stems, which lowers the total tannins as these wines will usually already have a unique texture. However, the Northern Rhône Valley constitutes a small percentage of the total acreage of all Syrah grapes. 

There has been a monumental rise in Syrah growth in the Southern Rhône Valley area, as well as the Languedoc region, where most Syrah in France undergoes production. As I delve into the different regions of Syrah production, I must point out the heated difference between Syrah and Shiraz. While they are from the same grape, Syrah connotes a more European-focused wine with more savory and austere flavors, a lighter-bodied feel, and a lower alcohol content. Shiraz refers to an Australian origin (some say Shiraz is Syrah with an Australian accent!) that is more full-bodied, more alcohol-heavy, fruitier, and riper. James Busby, the father of Australian wine, is usually credited with bringing Syrah to Australia and beginning its transformation into the more well-known Shiraz in Australia. While their differences were initially geographical, winemakers produce Shiraz and Syrah worldwide. Jancis Robinson discusses the differences between Syrah and Shiraz and their evolution and says, “Earlier in the century some of the more commercial wines grown in California, where Syrah is the usual name, were labelled Shiraz in an effort to ride the coat tails of what was then a love affair with all things Australian.” She continues, “But recently there has been a sea change in perceptions of the red wine platonic ideal so that even some Australian wine producers…have started to call their wines Syrah rather than Shiraz, mirroring developments elsewhere in the southern hemisphere.”

The contrasting characteristics have their origins in climate. In warmer climates such as Australia, grapes ripen faster, growing more sugar and having fruitier and heartier flavors and textures. Temperatures that are a little cooler will then make the lighter Syrah. Within France, I will discuss two regions, including the already mentioned Languedoc and Hermitage. The Languedoc region follows a primarily Mediterranean climate but contains various microclimates, including coastal and mountainous areas of the region. This particular climate, as well as the stronger winds, helps expel pests and other detriments, which has led it to become the leading organic wine producer in France. While rainfall is low, the region contains many water reserves and soil types, including clay and limestone; sandstone, pebbles, and granite are also common. Hermitage includes many granite hillsides. Its orientation and position allow it to benefit positively from the most sunlight. The region also has a wide variety of soil types, including sandy gravel and limestone. 

The Land Down Under accommodates the second most Syrah production with its most famous region, the Barossa Valley (photo, left), located on the southern tip of Australia. It exudes a warm and dry climate with little to no rainfall or humidity, which offers plenty of sunshine for the Syrah grape. However, it does suffer from a lack of water reserves and shallow soil. The McLaren Valley, adjacent to the Barossa Valley, sits at a low altitude and possesses a more Mediterranean climate. Its many different types of winds create unique and distinct vineyards. It contains a wide variety of soils because of its earthly diversity ranging from different sandy loams to clay types. Most of these soils are free draining, which helps to facilitate high yields.  The region of Priorat in Northeastern Spain is well-known for its distinctive and porous soils. Since the land is usually infertile, the completed wine is highly concentrated. Like other areas in Spain, it enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate with some continental attributes. Priorat wines are blends, with Syrah being a popular choice for its contribution to making the wine more full-bodied and earthy. 

The United States encompasses some unique places where Syrah grows. The Golden State is home to many fantastic wine regions, including Paso Robles, where Syrah produces plentiful. While the area contains thirty different soil classification types, they are primarily bedrock-based soils that originate from volcanic rocks and weathered granite. Something notable about the Paso Robles region is that it abounds in calcareous soils and has reasonably high pH values. The climate is usually cool and Mediterranean. While California provides an environment conducive to winemaking, other parts of the country also offer this. 

Washington State produces abundant wine, specifically in the Columbia Valley in the Cascade Mountain Range. This climate is more on the arid side and enjoys a continental climate which necessitates irrigation for grape and wine production. This type of irrigation and warm temperatures allow more control over grape production compared to other regions globally. In addition, the soils are usually sand-based as phylloxera, an insect pest known for its growth on grapevines has not been present, allowing vines to be grown on their rootstock. In contrast to grafting, which entails transplanting grapevines onto phylloxera-resistant rootstock, own-rooted-based wine can be more powerful, flavorful, and healthier. It can also help with the longevity of the vineyards. The Wine Spectator's Aleks Zecevic explains, "Most own-rooted vines are old, and the two winemakers, as well as others I've spoken with, agreed that older vines in general, with their deeper roots, don't need as much fertilization or irrigation, handle extreme weather better and are more resistant to fungus and diseases.This can help them more consistently produce balanced wines of character.”

Another factor that will contribute to the taste of Syrah or Shiraz is the presence of oak; in the French Rhône Valley, large oak “foudres,” which can hold up to 1,000 liters of wine, are utilized. This process will aid the oxygen to help permeate the wine giving it secondary characteristics that differ from an oaky flavor. In countries usually outside Europe, winemakers will utilize smaller oak barrels in wine production which will instill vanilla and other baking spices aromas and flavors. Syrah has a unique place in the world of wine with its global presence, diverse aromas and flavors, and distinctive blends.