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Book Notes: Pedro Parra – Terroir Footprints (2021)

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TitleTerroir Footprints – A Fascinating Journey to the Great World of Terroir
AuthorPedro Parra
PublisherAlit Wines
DateMay, 2021
ISBN978-1-889937-46-5 (English Hardcover)
Pages444
SynopsisTerroir Footprints by Pedro Parra is an essential read for wine enthusiasts. Explore Burgundy, Barolo, Sonoma, and more through the eyes of a leading terroir expert. With over 20 years of experience, Parra reveals the deep connection between soil and wine. This book is a must-have for anyone passionate about wine terroir and the intricacies that define world-class wines.
ShopTerroir Footprints: Un viaje fascinante en el mundo del terroir
Terroir Footprints: A Fascinating Journey to the Great World of Terroir
Un vin, une roche: Un voyage fascinant au coeur des plus grands terroirs

In part autobiography about Parra’s roots and his work as terroir consultant and winery owner, in part a geology guide about terroir, typicity, and wine. Highly technical (at times) but also a very personal book in which Parra shares his love for film and music (jazz in particular).

Greatly enjoyed reading (and will have to read the geology bits no doubt a few more times to digest) while listening to the accompanying tunes and appreciating some of Parra’s wine suggestions.

A warm recommendation.

Gualtallary – Drawing by Pedro Parra

About the Author

From the book cover – Pedro holds a PhD in Terroir Viticoles from the Grignon Paris Center of Agriculture, with 18 years experience in French, Italian, Spanish and American terroirs, including Burgundy, Barolo, Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Montalcino, Bolgheri, Napa, Sonoma, and Oregon. As a highly respected consultant working in several countries and terroirs, Parra brings an open mind and vision to winemakers and viticulturists alike. Today he is considered one of the leading terroir experts in the world, working with clients like Louis Michel Liger-Belair, Jean Marc Roulot, Biondi Santi, Argiano in Montalcino and Comando G in Spain among others.

Parra founded Pedro Parra Family Wines in 2013, located in Itata, Chile, not far from where he was born and grew up.

Terroir Concept

For updates

Also on WordPress and LinkedIn (buth perhaps no longer active).

Location

Where to find his wines

About the Book

The first five chapters cover his early career, getting started as wine consultant in Chile and the first 10.000 pits (2004-2007). Chapter 6-10 about working the new Chile (Itata) and working internationally (Argentina, Italy, Spain, Canada, US). The final chapters are case studies where Parra zooms in on specific terroir and discusses

  • Marco Marengo (Barolo)
  • Rose & Arrow (Eola Amity Hills)
  • Domaine Roulot (Meursault)
  • Commando G (Gredos)
  • Comte Liger-Belair (Vosne Romanée)
  • Altos las Hormigas

The book ends returning to the topic of the New Chile and the future of wine making.

Chapter 1 – Early Years

About growing up in Concepción, films and music, learning French at the Alliance Française, studying Forest Engineering at the local university, where he would find his first job, buying a saxophone and starting a band, going abroad (1997) to study Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems in Montpellier, France.

Chapter 2 – Master

Covers his year in Montpellier and Paris (INA Grignon), learning from soil experts like Michel-Claude Girard, tasting his first glass of wine, returning to Chile, and the opportunity to return to France to continue his studies sponsored by Concha y Toro (2001).

Chapter 3 – PhD

About his years as PhD student, the teachings from Pierre Becheler, visiting Bordeaux and Burgundy, and learning how to taste wine, and meeting Louis-Michel Liger-Belair (chapter 15).

Chapter 4 – Terroir Consulting

About attending Vinexpo and meeting Marcelo Retamal, starting his career as consultant, life and living in Paris, and, in some detail, about soil and geology (micro terroir) and graduating with Aurelio Montes in the jury.

Chapter 5 – Chile

About working with Retamal, Rodrigo Soto (Matetic), NVDI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), consulting for Montes (mentions the plan to wite a book about the terroir of Apalta) after which many other Chilean wineries followed (Montgras, Seña), returning to Concepción, by which time he had observed more than 10,000 pits in Chilean vineyards and his palate started to recognize the terroirs. Reflects about 2008: no instagram and no wines from other countries on the national market.

Chapter 6 – Altos las Hormigas

About meeting Alberto Antonini and starting consulting outside of Chile, first in Mendoza (which concentrates 85% of high-end wine production compared to a distributed landscape with no local market for small avant-garde producers in Chile). As before in Chile, the culture of studying the soils did not yet exist in Argentina at the time (2008); about Sebastian Zuccardi, Altos Las Hormigas and the “Terroir Project” for the Uco Valley, tasting every corner (200,000 ha) to find complexity (typically lacking in the alluvial/colluvial soils), to find limestone (Jardín Altamira).

Parra starts to give talks on terroir – from New York to Tokyo, ranging from Vancouver, London, Madrid, California, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo amongst other places – which would form the basis for this book.

Chapter 7 – Italy

About the New Chile movement for terroir-driven wines (chapter 17); about designing vineyards, organizing trips to wine regions in Europe; exploring the terroir of Poggiotondo; ECM, clay types 1:1 and 2:1 and Marcolini chocolate.

Over the years I’ve learned that geology is very democratic. It was formed in a wonderful way all across the planet, and it is possible to find great places, but also very bad ones, all over.

In the world of wine one can basically take three very different roads. There is the commercial road, related to supermarket wines, which are easy to drink, with lots of technical intervention and without terroir expression. (…) Then there is the group of high-quality wines, ripe and round, that to express rather black fruits (…) generally born from soils dominated by clay and silt (…) mainly on terroirs without rocks. And (…) those wines with character, acidity, tension, generally dominated by red fruits, where the word ‘complexity’ is real. Wines that deliver a challenging experience on the palate, tart and astringent, and with what many would call minerality. This rather niche wines, are tougher to drink and to understand and ask for a better trained palate.

Chapter 8 – Toscane

About Alan York, working in Sting’s vineyards in Tuscany (Il Palagio), and about David Scholefield’s Okanagan Crush Pad project.

“It’s all about the quality of life,” Alan used to say while we enjoyed mozzarella and drank Sister Moon, one of the vineyard’s first wines.

Chapter 9 – Pedro Parra Family Wines

About visiting Barolo (Maria Teresa Mascarello) and the inspiration to become a wine producer, Itata, ancient granite rocks, país and cinsault (Luyt).

The Origin of Pedro’s Wines, his Vineyards.
Vinista, Imaginador, Pencopolitano, Trane, Hub, Monk

Chapter 10 – Terroirs

About limestone terroirs (Chambolle Musigny, Settesoli Sicily, Cantina Argiano, Mriya Crimea); granite and alteration (Parra, Itata); gneiss: (Ramiiisol, Virginia); schist (Alkina, Barossa Valley); galestro and albarese (Chianti Classico, Montalcino – Giulio Salvioni); basalt (Hamel Family Wines)

Alkina Wine Estates, Barossa – Polygon Project

Schist concentrates grapes and wines, making big mineral wines. You need to try wines from Douro, Côte Rotie or Priorat to understand the tipicity provided by a Schist = power mineral and sometimes heavy wines.

Chapter 11 – Marco Marengo (Barolo)

About Barolo (Marco Marengo, Morescalchi; Cavalotto, Conterno, Altare, Vietti, Mascarello) and a case study about Brunate and Bricco delle viole (and the “elevator” effect).

silt + sand +limestone + heat + dryness = cement = rock effect = minerality

I call the latter the “elevator” effect, and is maybe one of the five most important things I have learned in my terroir career. That is, the real depth of the soil-rock system varies depending on the climate-year, therefore “acting” as a deep or semi-deep soil in humid years and, as dry, hard and rocky in dry and hot years.

AZIENDA AGRICOLA MARENGO MARIO DI MARENGO MARCO | LA MORRA CN | ITALY

Chapter 12 – Rose & Arrow (Eola Amity Hills)

Rose & Arrow Estate – The story

Chapter 13 – Domaine Roulot

Chapter 14 – Comando G

G from Gredos, Granite and Garnacha.

And so, to me, Spain today is the most dinamic wine country in Europe.

Comando G: The craft of Garnacha – Decanter

Chapter 15 – Comte Liger-Belair

Vosne Romanée, Clos du Château & Aux Reignots.

I met Louis Michel in 2002, at a time when he still didn’t wear his red trousers.

Carte Yves Lagouche – www.liger-belair.fr/en/our-climats

Chapter 16 – Altos las Hormigas

(…) one of the most outstanding terroirs in South America, Gualtallary, where currently the best Argentinian wines are produced.

TS_Appellation_Gualtallary_2022_ENGDownload

Chapter 17 – The New Chile

About working as a consultant in Chile, 15.000 pits dug all along the country, and the intimacy of pit conversations.

  1. limestone – absent (except for some calcareous gravels in the Andean sectors of Limari, Aconcagua, Maipo, and Cachapoal river valleys)
  2. granite – Coastal Range (Aconcagua, Leyda, Casablanca, Paredones, Maule, Cauquenes, Itata, Biobío, Malleco) and Atacama valleys (Elqui, upper Limarí and Choapa)
  3. volcanic – Aconcagua, Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua; not the best terroir; vast majority in last alterite phase or transformed into soil, especially clays, generally poor, yields raised via irrigation and fertilization. Vineyards with short lifespan.

Chile has 2900 volcanoes, 80 of them active, all in the Andes

Chile and its Future

The new Chile

About the Music

Each chapter opens with a jazz song

  1. Gentle Piece – Kenny Wheeler
  2. Baba – George Adams
  3. The Eye of the Hurricane – Herbie Hancock
  4. Now’s the Time – Charlie Parker
  5. Uncle Remus – Frank Zappa
  6. Spiral Dance – Keith Jarrett
  7. Parker’s Mood – Archie Sepp
  8. Red Clay – Freddie Hubbard
  9. When god created the Coffeebreak – Esbjorn Svensson Trio
  10. Footprints – Miles Davis
  11. Alfie’s Theme – Sonny Rollins
  12. Days of Wines & Roses – Dexter Gordon
  13. Resolution – John Coltrane
  14. In ‘n Out – Joe Henderson
  15. Exit Music (for a film) – Brad Mehldau
  16. Time will Tell – Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers
  17. Are you going with me? – Pat Metheny Group

For those on Spotify, there is a Terroir Footprints playlists (amongst others) by Pedro Parra

About the Artwork

The artwork in the book and on the labels is by José Dumay.

Pedro Parra – The Soulful Sound of Itata Valley

Articles and Interviews

The Decanter interview – Pedro Parra & Alberto Antonini by Peter Richards MW (Oct 2013Download
October 2014 – I’ll Drink to That with Levi Dalton (207)
March 2023 – The Tim Atkin Cork Talk Podcast with Pedro Parra
Pedro Parra with Raj Parr

Videos

Pie Franco – Terroir con Pedro Parra- Instituto Francés de Chile – Nov 3, 2021

El terroir es la palabra agronómica más compleja que yo he conocido, porqué es una palabra holística. En 21 años haciendo esto, he llegado a la conclusión de que el terroir es una energía.

Documentary

Excerpts with Pedro Parra

Bibliography

Books mentioned

Films mentioned (YouTube)

Comments

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