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The question
What does "minerality" mean in connection to wine? Are there rocks in my chardonnay?
The answer
No rocks, so don't worry. The term "minerality" has been used with accelerating frequency in recent years by wine critics (and wine lovers in general) to describe a spectrum of non-fruity aromas or flavours. Often more specific words will be trotted out by people like me, such as chalky, flinty, stony, wet stone, graphite, slate or saline. When I use the term in my reviews, I'm often thinking of the scent of a stone quarry or the salty tang of sea water sprayed against rocks on shore, sometimes even the smell of pencil shavings. (Wine critics have nothing if not vivid imaginations.) It's also a certain tingle and tension on the tongue, something that doesn't seem entirely attributable to the tartness of acidity.
Most people who describe wine as minerally would, I'm sure, be surprised to learn that they are not in fact literally sensing decomposed rock matter that has been transported from vine roots up to the grapes. Vine roots simply are unable to dissolve and absorb minerals from rocks – no matter what the winemaker on your vineyard tour tries to insist. That's not the way plant biology works. As I wrote in a column years ago, the mineral content in wine is below the threshold of human taste and smell. Think about it: If you were tasting actual minerals in wine, then you'd taste them in the grapes, which are one step closer to the soil, yet no one describes grapes as minerally.
All those rocky sensations are more likely produced by a combination of wine acids and sulphur-bearing organic compounds produced by yeast during fermentation. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it until science comes up with a better answer.
E-mail your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the Wine & Spirits newsletter and on The Globe and Mail website.