Can we taste minerals in wine?
My spell-check flags “minerality” as a misspelling, but I still love to taste it in my wine.
That certainly seems unfair, as I wrote in a Sept. 28, 2018 article, Is ‘minerality’ a word? “I love the stony, chalky, granite, slate, clay, oyster shell, or rainwater-over-rocks character that distinguishes some of the world’s most subtle and interesting wines,” I wrote back then.
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But there’s an asterisk following that statement. In fact, “minerality” does appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, which declares it rare, with a first recorded use dating from the 19th century. It’s rare enough, I suppose, that single-volume dictionaries – and, of course, spell check – find no space for it.
What is this mysterious thing, anyway? It’s related, if not exactly identical, to the idea of “terroir,” another of those French-heritage wine words that make up winespeak. What is terroir, exactly? I ran across this exceptionally clear explanation in a non-wine publication from the European barge tours firm European Waterways:
The word terroir has its origins in the French word ‘terre’, meaning earth. In consequence, many think of terroir in France as simply the earth or soil, but it is so much more than that. It is the entire natural environment where grapevines are grown. This includes the soil, but also the topography, climate, and even farming practices. Collectively, these influence the character of a wine.
For many years, conventional wisdom among wine fanciers held that microscopic fragments of minerals in the soil worked their way up through the grapevines to the fruit, where they remained in the juice that became wine, doing their happy work of passing a physical expression of the soil along to our palates.
Sadly, current research makes clear that this lovely story is not true.
From The SevenFifty Daily: Producers in the Etna DOC grow vines on the slopes of Mount Etna, which can erupt more than 50 times each year. Photo by Steve Blandino; photo courtesy of IDDA.
In his 2018 book, Vineyards, Rocks, and Soils, Welsh geologist Alex Maltman painstakingly examined the chemistry of vines and minerals and their interaction,explaining why it’s not possible for us to taste minerals from the soil in wine: only water comes up through the ground to the vines, he says
So what are we tasting when we detect those delicious, intriguing hints of granite, chalk, red clay, gunflint, oyster shells, licking rocks, rain water?
I suspect yeast character may sometimes be a factor, particularly in white wines aged on their lees. And then there’s the way wine, in its lovable complexity, works on our minds and prompts us to find non-fruit characteristics, from blackberries and tart cherries to rising bread dough, toast, tobacco, chocolate, coffee, cat litter boxes, pungent stables, and thousands more.
Wine is evocative. It makes us think, and it triggers memories. When we know that Chablis grows on chalky ground, northern Rhône wines on granite, or Sicilian wines on volcanic soil, who can blame us for, well, detecting traces of those minerals in our wine?
What do you think? Do you love minerality in a wine? How do you define it? Join today’s conversation in Substack Chat.
Today’s featured wine, Regaleali Sicilia Bianco (a sibling of the Regaleali Buonsenso Catarratto featured in the April 3 Wine Advisor) shows me a whiff of stony minerality that seems to fit its high-altitude Sicilian soil. It’s another winner from Regaleali, and I think you’ll enjoy it.
Today’s Tasting Report
Tasca Conti d’Almerita 2024 Tenuta Regaleali Sicilia Bianco ($15.99)
A blend of the indigenous Sicilian grapes Catarratto (34%), Inzolia (31%), and Grecanico (29%), plus a splash of Chardonnay (6%), Regaleali Sicilia Bianco shows a clear straw color with a brassy greenish hue. Tart green apple and white grapefruit scents with subtle floral back notes invite a taste. Bone-dry, zippy acidic white-fruit and citrus flavors are consistent with the nose, with intriguing stony, rainwater-over-rocks minerality joining lime-zest citrus in a very long finish. Made without malolactic fermentation and aged for three months in stainless steel tanks with no oak exposure, it’s an inviting expression of native Sicilian fruit. 12.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: Heritage Collection Trinchero Family Estates, St. Helena, Calif. (April 11, 2026)
FOOD MATCH: Fresh seafood and fish, quality sushi and sashimi would make a natural match. Pasta primavera or plant-based rice or grain dishes would also serve it well.
WHEN TO DRINK: This wine is made in a fresh, snappy style that rewards drinking it up while it’s fresh. If you’re adventurous (and have a quality cellar), it might make an interesting experiment to hold a few bottles for five years or so, but why? Not all wines need aging.
VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com lists a $16 average U.S. retail price, matching my local shop’s toll. It’s a very good value in the middle to upper teens.
WEB LINK:
Here’s the winery fact sheet.
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Regaleali Sicilia Bianco on Wine-Searcher.com.
Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read more about Sicilian wines and vineyards.
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Sure. Flint and minerals and Chablis , iron in a Rhone Syrah, steel in a German Riesling