Dishing the dirt: what does ‘minerality’ of wine mean?

I’m a keen wine drinker, but I’m puzzled by the words “mineral” and “minerality”, which seem to be appearing more often in wine descriptions. What do they mean?
V. Taylor, Surrey Hills, Vic

You’re right: the word “mineral” has entered winespeak in recent times, but I doubt that many wine professionals using it would agree on its meaning.

It’s generally used for two reasons: to describe a smell or taste present in a wine or to imply that the vine has taken up minerals from the soil, placed them in the grapes and hence into the wine. The former is fair enough in my book. If a wine smells like crushed granite, chalk, flint or wet river stones, I’m happy to say so in a tasting note. But I – and many other wine professionals – like to draw the line there since there’s no proof that minerals are translocated from the soil to the grape.

There is evidence, however, that mineral ions are transported into grapes; whether they have any influence on wine flavour, however, is questionable. Some wines can taste salty and, in my experience, this is because they have been grown in vineyards where rising soil salinity is a problem.

Not long ago, I was in a notable German vineyard with the proprietor who picked up a chunk of black slate and asked me to lick it; he pointed out that the taste of the slate was also present in his riesling wine. I fudged it since I didn’t like to tell him I couldn’t taste any such thing. Others would disagree.

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A colleague has a good definition of minerality in wine. He suggests taking a sip from a glass of distilled water and then one from a glass of mineral water. The difference you detect is minerality. And there is a difference. Exactly what the difference will be depends on the brand of mineral water.

In the end, tasting wine or anything else involves subjectivity. Our palates vary, in both acuity and experience, so it follows that so do our impressions of how things taste. Next time you’re standing in a mountain stream, pick up a stone and lick it. You’ll notice that it does, indeed, have a taste.

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