Or if there is, the Seminar on Minerality organized by the Institute of Masters of Wine failed to find it. The seminar had a great format: first three speakers presented views of minerality from geological and sensory perspectives; then there was a tasting to assess minerality.

I thought it had long been established absolutely beyond contradiction that, whatever minerality might be in wine, it is not due to uptake of minerals from the soil, but geologist Alex Maltman presented several amazing examples from supposedly respectable sources, such as textbooks, where minerality was attributed to soil elements. So it’s maybe worth repeating that this cannot be: measured quantities of trace elements in wine are far below the threshold for taste. Any effects they have on taste must be indirect.

Debunking another myth, Alex pointed out that insofar as soil might influence any uptake by the plant, it’s the surface that…