Like the wine? Thank an earth scientist

(PRI) - There are few things that geologist Kevin Pogue loves more than gazing into a pit in the ground. Especially in Washington, where he lives.

There’s a lot of “weird stuff” to discover: sedimental remains from a glacial event known as the Missoula Floods, which passed through the area roughly 15,000 years ago; fist-sized gravel, encrusted with white, powdery calcium carbonate; iron-rich, fractured basalt, cooled from lava flows; granite chunks that once cleaved to icebergs; and silt deposits from massive dust storms.  

“When I look into the ground, I might see [the remnants of] multiple catastrophes,” Pogue says.

A typical geologist might use such expertise to monitor natural disasters or assist energy companies in scouting for valuable natural resources. Not Pogue — he uses his rock knowledge to help vintners find prime sites for grape growing.

“If you have a piece of land in mind, Kevin can put you on the right direction and tell you if it’s too cold or if the soil’s too rich for growing high-quality grapes,” says Christophe Baron, owner of Cayuse Vineyards, in Walla Walla, Wash.

Pogue is a leading global expert on “terroir,” a French term that refers to the soil, climate, and other environmental properties that influence how wine grapes mature. (Terroir can also refer to the winemaker’s process and how cultural factors, such as irrigation policy, shape their practices.) While the concept of terroir has been around for centuries, applying science to vineyard siting is a recent and growing area of research.

Pogue is one of a handful of U.S.-based scientists who study terroir, and he’s bent on helping vintners find sites that have something to say.

“You can grow grapes most any place,” he says, “but not all places are capable of creating wines with unique and compelling personalities.”

Middle-aged, with an earnest and nerdy enthusiasm, Pogue certainly seems less pretentious than the stereotypical, snooty wine connoisseur. Before he became interested in terroir, he spent a decade studying a major tectonic event known as the Indo-Asian Collision, first as a graduate student at Oregon State University and then as a professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, where he still teaches geology. During that time, he spent about a month each year digging up rocks in northern Pakistan. After the Sept. 11 attacks, however, safety concerns forced him to change his focus.